She is our moon. Our tidal pull. She is the rich deep beneath the sea, the buried treasure, the expression in the owl's eye, the perfume in the wild rose. She is what the water says when it moves.

Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps. It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.

Those who fear the imagination condemn it: something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten. Not all of us dream awake. But those of us who do have no choice.

It’s an odd thing, happiness. Some people take happiness from gold. Or black pearls. And some of us, far more fortunate, take their happiness from periwinkles.

There was the gaudy patch of sunflowers beside the west gate of the palace of the Prince of Ombria, that did nothing all day long but turn their golden-haired, thousand-eyed faces to follow the sun.

The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more.

Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.

Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.

Love and anger are like land and sea: They meet at many different places.

That's the beginning of magic. Let your imagination run and follow it.

When you put your hands and mind and heart into the knowing of a thing ... there is no room in you for fear.

You will know who truly loves you when you ask them to do an uncoventional favor.

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

Think what you like. There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying.

It is no sin to be tempted; the wickedness lies in being overcome.

Everyone's future is, in reality, uncertain and full of unknown treasures from which all may draw unguessed prizes.

To be good Americans, we must be better Jews, and to be better Jews, we must become Zionists.

Men who believe that they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in a different way from men who believe that speaking is a waste of time.

Solo artists are generally totally insane. Elton John? Slightly eccentric. George Michael? He's mad as custard.

The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.

[T]he judicious reader ought to know what the chief character in any work of the imagination will naturally perform, according to the situation he is thrown into, as well as doth the author himself.