Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

All my life I have lied. I lied to escape, I lied to be loved, I lied for placement and power; I lied to lie. It was a way of living; lies are life's almost-anagram.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.

Everything we do is tinged with the knowledge that this may be the last time that we will do this, and that makes what we're doing incredibly sweet.

We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations.

To take possession of a city of which you are not a native you must first fall in love there.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it never in the tongue Of him that makes it.

Make use of time let not advantage slip.

It is not the crook in modern business that we fear, but the honest man who doesn't know what he is doing.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Challenge yourself, jump off the deep end and learn to swim.

Hillary Clinton's all talk. It doesn't get done. All you have to do is take a look at her Senate run. Take a look at upstate New York.

Is this freedom? Is it happiness? I don't know. I don't care anymore. It is different--it is being alive.

My wife's father said if you marry my daughter I'll give you three acres and a cow. I'm still waiting for the three acres.

It is madness beyond compare To try to reform the world.

Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow's good luck.