The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."

Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how to extinguish.

When things don't go well, it helps to think of yourself as a genius and the rest of the world as a bunch of idiots.

Every minute we were together, I felt like I was wandering in the dark through a strange house, groping for a light switch. And then, whenever I found one and turned it on, the bulb was dead.

Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.

I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences and moved by the story about the irrevocability of lost love.

Once you'd broken through that invisible barrier that separates one person from another, you were connected forever, whether you liked it or not.

It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.

Apparently even the most awful tragedies, and the people they'd ruined, got a little stale after a while.

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.

He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood.

I may have my fault's but being wrong isn't one of them

One good test of whether an economy is humanistic or not is the plausibility of earning the ability to drop out of it for a while without incident or insult.

Remember no matter how many candles you blow out this year there's one gal who will always think of you as young strong and handsome - your mother.

Anyone who has spent any time in space will love it for the rest of their lives. I achieved my childhood dream of the sky.

No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.

The truth is, our civilization is not Christian; it is a tragic compound of great ideal and fearful practice, of loving charity and fearful clutching of possessions.

I don't call you handsome, sir, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't flatter me.

There is always scope for football to be more charitable but a lot happens already. Personally I have always been passionate about charity.

People who plan their life when they're 18 years old and say, "This is my life plan," would generally be surprised and maybe disappointed.

The beauty of personal authenticity can compensate for the lost beauty of our youth.