But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably havent read them.

The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.

Be content with who you are and where you are, and do whatever you can do to bring to others such contentment, and joy, and understanding that you have managed to find yourself.

There is room in history for all of us.

Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.

I see no point in being despondent. We might as well enjoy ourselves during our brief tenure of this life.

How many of us are happy to be exactly where we are at any moment?...only the completely happy think that they are in the correct place.

Talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow.

We think the world is ours forever, but we are little more than squatters.

There are old mycologists and there are bold mycologists, but there are no old, bold mycologists.

A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

To enjoy the beauty of the world, don’t try to fit in. Try to fly out of your perceived boundaries.

Seek to learn. See to learn.

How then did it work out, all this? How did one judge people, think of them? How did one add up this and that and conclude that it is liking one felt, or disliking?

One of the most attractive things about writing your autobiography is that you're not dead.

When I'm speaking, I'm more focused on the words as meaning. When I'm singing, I'm more focused on the words as sound. The emotion is more targeted when I'm speaking, more flowing when I'm singing.

'Friends' was a magical thing, and no one's going to ever have anything like that again.

A quarrelsome man deserves no honors.

We should stop arguing about tax cuts in this town.