Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt.

(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

When all else fails, philosophize.

We must cultivate, all of us, a certain ignorance, a certain blindness, or society will not be tolerable.

I know somewhat too much; and from this knowledge, once one has been infected, there seems to be no recovering.

All creatures come into the world bringing with them the memory of justice.

But he cannot see a connection between the end of yearning and the end of poetry. Is that what growing up amounts to: growing out of yearning, of passion, of all intensities of the soul?

I don't think we are ready to die, any of us, not without being escorted.

A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

I think what we need to do is to have an immigration system where legal immigration is easier.

We cannot resolve the problems of the world by unsing the same techniques that have created them.

I realize that most of us live on the skin - on the surface - without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.

Making English grammar conform to Latin rules is like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football.

Gave her love away, put it in my pocket when it should of been framed!

Atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man.

I still believe that music is one of the greatest gifts that God gave to man.

The cost of praising someone is nil - but every psychological study shows the payoff is huge.

Life is sometimes amazingly fragile, but some lives are frighteningly strong.