But that's life. That's what you learn from; when things happen. Especially at your age. You just have to take it in and remember to think afterwards and not forget and never grow bitter.

I remember a lot of dreams. Sometimes they are hard to distinguish from what has really happened. That is not so terrible. It is the same with books.

I rely heavily on rhythm when I write. You should tap your foot when you read it, all the way through.

If I just concentrate I can walk into memory's store and find the right shelf with the right film and disappear into it.

A dead dog is more quiet than a house on the steppes, a chair in a empty room.

You decide for yourself when it will hurt.

In a household tragedy, you are very much aware of being alone. It is something that is possible to grasp, and that is why it hurts so much. Because you are alone. I know a little about this.

I write about families. That is who we are.

I worked in a bookstore in Oslo, importing the English-language books.

A lot can change because you are embarrassed by something.

But that's life. That's what you learn from when things happen. Especially at your age. You just have to take it in and remember to think afterwards and not forget and never grow bitter.

Nothing is impossible to kill. It's just that sometimes after you kill something you have to keep shooting it until it stops moving

It has become impossible to give up the enterprise of disarmament without abandoning the whole great adventure of building up a collective peace system.

The sense of wrong is simply failure to see where something fits into a pattern, to be confused as to the hierarchical level upon which an event belongs.

Extroverts are more responsive to high-intensity and "happy" stimuli, which may be why an extrovert gets frustrated at the less "readable" face of the introvert.

Ceremonies are the outworks of manners.

We can be lonely together

I'm waiting for the day when my children cease to find my domestic propriety reassuring and actually find it annoying.

Discipline enabled Heaven to be filled with light; discipline enabled the angels to be immaculate and holy.

In civilized society, women have the ultimate power. It's women who say "no," in civilized society. That's what you feminists never have understood.

What is called honors and dignities, and even honor and dignity, is generally fool's gold.