And when I raised myself to look at the man who’d spoken, I had a feeling of leaving my misery behind me there on the stone wall.

We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.

After all, when a stone is dropped into a pond, the water continues quivering even after the stone has sunk to the bottom.

If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.

The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

When we fight upstream against a rocky undercurrent, every foothold takes on a kind of urgency.

Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.

And then I became aware of all the magnificent silk wrapped around my body, and had the feeling I might drown in beauty. At that moment, beauty itself struck me as a kind of painful melancholy.

At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it.

Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.

The greatest gift life can give you today is the promise of tomorrow.

Divorce is a game played by lawyers.

Self-expression is for babies and seals where it can be charming. A writer's business is to affect the reader.

It's fear of being afraid that frightens me more than anything else.

Donald Trump's against amnesty and I'm against amnesty, not that anybody should care what a consultant thinks.

One of the reasons I don't have kids is because I think people would have been very unfair to them. Think of it. You're still asking me questions about The Exorcist.

Getting kicked out of the American Bar Association is like getting kicked out of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

I have been blind expecting everything to stay the same.

I think you only really feel like an outsider if you've been an insider.

The truly miserable have a timbre in their voices strong enough to erase smiles from the faces and souls of the contented.