Do we tend to recall the most important parts of a novel or those that speak most directly to us, the truest lines or the flashiest ones?

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

Moments never wait for anyone, slowly the new moment pushes the old moment back and then it never comes back. That's what makes them precious.

My works are all expressly my own - pleasingly peculiar, not a borrowed stroke in one of them. I write as I feel and as I don't feel.

Surrender is Beautiful. When we surrender Our Soul's beauty is reflected in Life's Stream.

I write in a rush of memory.

I 'ad a toy when I was little,' said Suzy. She frowned for a moment, then added, 'Can't remember what it was. It moved and made me laugh.

Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.

The avarice of the old: it's absurd to increase one's luggage as one nears the journey's end.

If we had known there was biting in soccer, we would have started watching years ago.

If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.

Grilled salmon and brown pasta works for me every time.