Most people would have found it grotesque, but when you're in love nothing is so abstract or horrible that it can't be thought of as cute.

The Greeks had invented democracy, built the Acropolis and called it a day.

Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you're offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone's feelings.

A zoo is a good place to make a spectacle of yourself, as the people around you have creepier, more photogenic things to look at.

There seemed to be some correlation between devotion to God and a misguided zeal for marshmallows.

All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.

Remember that the most important thing is to try and love other people as much as they love you.

Everyone looks retarded once you set your mind to it.

I started writing when I was twenty, and my first book came out seventeen years later.

Like all of my friends, she's a lousy judge of character.

A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.

I might live a life of struggle but I will not live a life of defeat!

I had the most beautiful dream, and then I fell asleep in your arms and my dream turned lovelier still.

I'm extremely proud of my daughter. She's done amazing work. She's worked on herself, which I think is important.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'

Any book is better than no book. Slowly, surely, one will lead you to another, which will lead you to the best.

Accepting good advice means nothing other than to strengthen one's own ability.

People who can't admit they are part of the problem, will never be part of its solution.

My biggest problem about writing is whenever I write piano pieces, because I then have to learn to play them, which is sometimes not so easy.

Listen to presences inside poems, Let them take you where they will. Follow those private hints, and never leave the premises.