War is being reminded that you are completely at the mercy of death at every moment, without the illusion that you are not. Without the distractions that make life worth living.

Life was small but good. (15)

The romantic fairy tales we grew up with -- where marriage is the happy ending rather than the opening scene -- are not useful for grown-ups.

The voices in my head that tell the other voices what to do are mean.

If you could do anything right now, at this moment, what would you do?”The question was obviously loaded, but the answer was surprisingly simple, “I’d be with you.

I would say I'm a nice person, and I take pride in the fact that I treat everyone really well, so there's no reason for anyone to ever come at me because I only want the best for everybody else.

Downton Abbey is the most popular drama in the history of public television. When the whole of the TV universe is fragmenting, that isn't just impressive. It's almost impossible. But here we are.

A world without huge regions of total wilderness would be a cage; a world without lions and tigers and vultures and snakes and elk and bison would be - will be - a human zoo. A high-tech slum.

It is a very good world to live in, To lend or to spend, or to live in; but to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own, It is the very worst world that ever was known.

I've always been inspired by Don Quixote as a role model of sorts, of the power of books to sort of make you insane in maybe a beautiful way.

Sometimes when you open a book, time stops.

Try to say nothing negative about anybody for three days, for forty-five days, for three months. See what happens to your life.