An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth.

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing.

our finest writing will certainly come from what is unregenerate in ourselves. It will come from the part that is obdurate, unbanishable, immune to education, springing up like grass.

Envy is one of the scorpions of the mind, often having little to do with the objective, external world.

Fiction must convince our bodies for it to have any chance of convincing our minds.

Writing teaches writing. Your writing will teach you how to write if you work hard enough and have enough faith.

Daily life is always extraordinary when rendered precisely.

To gain the book, one must give up all hope for the book. It is the only way the book can get written.

Fiction structures an experience for the reader to live through. ... That is why people read: to have experiences.

How we learn is what we learn.

The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it. The answers you want can come only from the work itself.

I feel so grateful to discover that each new day brings me the opportunity to watch the sunrise and fall in love with you again.

By being beautiful and kind you are given favored status and opportunity in life.

It is my happy privilege to be able to stand here and tell you that if you elect me you will have elected a governor who has made no promises of preferment to any man or group.

Malthus has been buried many times, and Malthusian scarcity with him. But as Garrett Hardin remarked, anyone who has to be reburied so often cannot be entirely dead.

Music actually meant something when I started doing it. Too bad I wasn't mature enough to write anything that meant anything.

I think that the Iraqi ground defenses shot down dozens of missiles. We are in the process of counting all these missiles quickly

Did you have an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky?

I think working with artists is incredibly important for everybody in the world, but also, it is a way of seeing the world differently.

Being varied is something I do instinctively and naturally. I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Happiness, sadness, loss and gain all pass away. What they do to us is what remains.