A complying memory has obliterated many of them and edited my childhood down to a brief cinematic blur.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.

… there is no permanence or guarantee in this life.

It's not the price but it's the value of the thing that making them important

With thought, all problems can be resolved.

When Nehemiah's heart was broken he paid attention to his broken heart.

Show business is the best possible therapy for remorse.

Learning is a deep human need, like mating and eating, and like all such needs it is meant to be deeply pleasurable to human beings.

I simply adore being alone - I find it a consuming thirst - and when that thirst is slaked, then I am happy.

The majority of human conflict comes from people just feeling disrespected.

I love my brother. I miss my brother.