A book of great beauty and manically exquisite insight with a wild and deadly humor . . . The only American novelist who may conceivably be possessed by genius.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

No one wants to stumble into gates on moonless nights to trip in holes dug by dogs, but Maria finds more beauty than danger in night.

He has seen enough of daily evil to be thankful for small goods that come his way.

All other goods by fortune's hand are given: A wife is the peculiar gift of Heav'n.

People do not lack strength they lack will.

While I live, no rich or noble knave shall walk the world in credit to his grave.

Most importantly: Don't adjust your results to build up the ego of the chief strategist. Especially if the strategist is you.

If you break little promises, you'll break big ones.

Success is about making your life a special version of unique that fits who you are - not what other people want you to be.

Let your courage mount with difficulties. There would be no will if there were no resistance.

Joe Torre, who switched to first base because he didn't want to go through life as Chicken Catcher Torre. Never got a dinner!