Books hold no passports. There's only one true literary tradition: the human.

People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren't already complicated enough.

Remember me, even if it's only in a corner and secretly. Don't let me go.

Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.

There are no second chances in life, except to feel remorse.

Never trust girls who let themselves be touched right away. But even less those who need a priest for approval.

The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.

Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art.

Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them.

People talk too much. Humans aren't descended from monkeys. They come from parrots.

Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.

Managers maintain an efficient status quo while leaders attack the status quo to create something new.

I'm a really, really optimistic and really, really positive person. My main thing is, 'Enjoy life. Celebrate life.'

an optimist is the man who looks after your eyes, and the pessimist the person who looks after your feet.

To me, rockabilly music paralleled punk's energy and feeling, but the players were much better.

I'm not the kind of person that likes to be dependent.

There was definitely a period when I just felt out of sync with earth.

I can still hear my mother wailing over some new kitchen crisis, "Oh God," and my father answering cozily from the silo, "Were you calling me, dear?

So I've seen life as one long learning process.

Even thou who mournst the daisy's fate, That fate is thine--no distant date; Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives, elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight Shall be thy doom!

I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me.