Engaging each moment without reservation cuts through the illusion that things could be other than they are.

We are loved by an unending love.

The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves determine the quality of the selves we imagine we are. The stories we tell about others determine the quality of our relationships with them.

To act choicelessly is to act in accord with the situation. If someone throws a rock, you duck.

Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them.

There is nothing more shameful than perfidious friendship.

My dad wanted to name me after Rainier Maria Rilke, the poet.

He who has not an adventure has not horse or mule, so says Solomon.--Who is too adventurous, said Echephron,--loses horse and mule.

What I do believe is that there is always a relationship between writing and reading, a constant interplay between the writer on the one hand and the reader on the other

The best things beyond their measure cloy.

I can never do better than 'Fawlty Towers,' whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

Learn the Arabic language; it will sharpen your wisdom.

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.