And that's when he finally tells me his name is Ernest. I'm thinking of giving it away, though. Ernest is so dull, and Hemingway? Who wants a Hemingway?

It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should--a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds.

My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.

Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.

Maybe happiness was an hourglass already running out, the grains tipping, sifting past each other. Maybe it was a state of mind.

If I can write one sentence, simple and true every day, I'll be satisfied.

I miss good old-fashioned honorable people just trying to make something of life. Simply, without hurting anyone else. I know that makes me a sap.

Dogs are easy. If their tails are up and their eyes are soft, you're in.

Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved

I'd had my share of rain. My mother's illness ... had weighed on me, but the years before had been heavy, too. I was only twenty eight.

She was also incredibly confident, with a way of moving and talking that communicated that she didn't need anyone to tell her she was beautiful or worthwhile.

Character in decay is the theme of the great bulk of superior fiction.

You only know how you feel, and you can only guess how others feel.

I don't think anybody whose ever been divorced can tell you divorce is easy or fun or feels like anything other than a tremendous failure.

Italian hospitals are great. The doctor smoking in the emergency room will sign any prescription you ask for.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night.

The way to be truly happy is to be truly human, and the way to be truly human is to be truly godly.

No one can out-sin the cross of Christ.

Art must unquestionably have a social value; that is, as a potential means of communication it must be addressed, and in comprehensible terms, to the understanding of mankind.

Romania will continue to fulfil its obligations in Afghanistan and Iraq.