A plot begins when somebody has something to hide.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

All my life I have lied. I lied to escape, I lied to be loved, I lied for placement and power; I lied to lie. It was a way of living; lies are life's almost-anagram.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.

Everything we do is tinged with the knowledge that this may be the last time that we will do this, and that makes what we're doing incredibly sweet.

We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations.

To take possession of a city of which you are not a native you must first fall in love there.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.

The lucky ones are just born dead.

A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts.

In order to write about life first you must live it.

People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.

The danger of our culture.- We belong to a period of which the culture is in danger of being destroyed by the appliances of culture.

Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.

If you aren't hungry for God, you are full of yourself.

I do think women change the discourse in Senate and I think it is more civil when women are involved.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.

I fell from the sky. I'm a parachutist, and I missed my mark.