Isolation, you know, carries the seeds of its own destruction because as times change, other things seep in.

I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

History doesn't remember gardens.…You forgot the wise administrators, those who kept the peace, those who brought prosperity. You needn’t feel embarrassed, though. So did history.

Being happyis not a privilege—it is somethingeveryone deserves.

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

Envy is a sign of insecurity, yes; but so is longing to be envied.

It is easier to be mistaken about the true than the beautiful.

Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can.

Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.

Americans are generally very self-sufficient and I think generally averse to pretension, just as I am.

Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due.

Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.