Families hold each other in an iron grip of definition. One must break the grip, somehow.

When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are an awakener.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.

The minute you become conscious that you are doing good, that's the minute you have to stop because from then on it's wrong.

To be human is to be in a story.

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend.

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along.

I was the goldfish that leapt out of the bowl.

Life is all getting used to what you're not used to.

we are, in this country, more open to new ideas. But we are also, it seems to me, more inclined to hail the new as absolute truth - until the next new comes along.

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

Most men find [peace] entirely unlike what they had expected - like love...

A heart can be shared.Who decided that a 'broken heart' was a bad thing?

People who are at ease with their consciences always look happy.

There is only one true thing: instantly paint what you see. When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again. All the rest is humbug.

I think I fail a bit less than everyone else.

The great leaders of business, industry and finance, and the great artists, poets, musicians and writers all became great because they developed the power of self-motivation .

In another couple of generations, we're really gonna see the effect of this single-parent raising. And I think that's the problem. That's the disconnect. That's the miscommunication.

I had insecurities and fears like everybody does, and I got over it. But I was interested in the parts of me that struggled with those things.

Man that is of woman born is apt to be as vain has his mother.