You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.

Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.

Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.

It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.

The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.

Never trust a man with a lunatic wife in an attic, " Richard told me. "And anyone named Heathcliff should make you suspicious.

That's okay, " I said. "We're writers. We make things up.

You can't possibly know that you're going to be a writer!" Miss Frost said. "It's not a career choice.

Small towns may revile you, but they have to keep you-they can't turn you away.

Novels are just another kind of cross-dressing, aren't they?

Over the years, everyone stumbles. That's why I'll be here for you — and you'll be there for me. I don't expect perfection. I want you, and you're a thousand times better.

I've done some stupid things I regret, but I've managed to keep my integrity. Which is important because integrity is fragile. Break it once and it's gone forever.

Every man has his follies - and often they are the most interesting thing he has got.

We should feel grateful instead of entitled. We have a moral obligation to give back.

Justice is the great interest of man on earth.

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

Film is like a personal diary, a notebook or a monologue by someone who tries to justify himself before a camera.

I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one.

At a certain point, if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both.

The soldier who fights to death never dies, but the soldier who fights for existence never truly exists.