For every victory there is a price.

When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon me

There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter for the prolonging of desire

To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting

Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.

That which yields is not always weak.

Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?

It's funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.

All knowledge is worth having

The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart

And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.

I'm drawn to the 1950s for lots of reasons - everything from the fashion to the increasing sense of freedom and modernity that builds throughout the decade.

An adaptation I was working on of Trollope's 'The Pallisers' has been axed by the BBC... I was also going to do Dickens' 'Dombey and Son' but they've asked me to do 'David Copperfield' instead.

If someone puts too much pressure on me, I will automatically rebel.

Time perfects men as well as destroys them.

The Sufis have a saying: "Praise Allah, and tie your camel to a post." This brings together both parts of practice: pray, yes, but also make sure that you do what is necessary in the world.

Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life. Anarchy and competition, the laws of death.

Loving is a laborious and complex business.

The polynomial xn−1 is a force of nature.

The best way to live is to live like there is no tomorrow.

I just think it is so delightful to see people, let their elbows free. I think the exuberance of it all is really exciting to me. It's a signal of the abundance of diversity and creative expression.