I've never been much drawn towards satire of any kind. I don't like that style whereby you kind of stitch people up. But the deeper thing is that I just find these people so impressive and admirable.

Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.

The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere.

One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at.

Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels.

To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf.

All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.

Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it.

Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.

When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen.

If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff

The only thing set in stone are dumb quotes and names of dead people. Everything else is subject to change.

He who has no passion has no principal or motive to act.

One shouldn’t be only two photographers but thousands.

. . . For a lifetime was but a moment in that place, and each man dreams his own heaven. And in the darkness David closed his eyes, as all that was lost was found again.

The truth is an arbitrary, shifting, culturally relative, and historically molded phenomenon.

I have switched on this modern laptop machine. And I have told myself that I must resist the temptation to start playing solitaire upon it.

No wise man is ever interested in stupid matters like wars! Wars are always on the agenda of only stupid man!

Sit up straight, listen and participate.

I grew up Greenville. And I moved to Raleigh some years later.

By the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions.