If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

Never confuse faith, or belief — of any kind — with something even remotely intellectual.

Keep passing the open windows.

Half my life is an act of revision.

You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .

The tragedy of life is that it comes just once and before you know it, it is gone.

The battle is tough but if you reach where you want to go, then at least in some sense it is worth it.

Privacy is a function of liberty.

Scientists often seek predictively accurate models, rather than models that are true.

If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.

A woman who lives with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule will often ache with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul.

Good fortune has side effects.

There were thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit. There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.

A great percentage of the mistakes I discovered in my own work, could be attributed to testimonies.

There is one art of which people should be masters - the art of reflection.