This is not the story of my marriage. I cannot tell that story: I cannot take hold of, or lay out for anyone, the many swamps and grasses and pockets of fresh air and dank air that have gone over us.

She said that her job as a writer of fiction was to report on the human condition, to tel us who we are and what we think and what we do.

... and that was when I learned that work gets done if you simply do it.

I never wrote him. I never saw him again. He was just gone, this dear, dear man, this friend of my soul in the hospital so long ago, disappeared. This is a New York story too.

But early on I saw this: You are wasting time by suffering twice. I mention this only to show how many things the mind cannot will itself to do, even if it wants to.

Nihilism is…not only the belief that everything deserves to perish

The heart of man is, so to speak, the paradise of God.

Usually there's no specific reason for loneliness - it's a broad feeling.

It's easier to make fun of things that people can help doing.

Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.

There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.

The most important person on this earth is you. What are you doing to help the most important person in this world: you? To live right, you have to exercise, have goals and challenges.

Not to ask is not be denied.

My father died when I was five, but I grew up in a strong family.

As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.