...God knows you can have complication and difficulty without any compensating depth or seriousness

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.

The scaffolding must be removed once the house is built.

The longer the title, the less important the job.

Everybody likes to go their own way–to choose their own time and manner of devotion.

A tree weeps when cut down, a dog howls when beaten, but a man matures when offended.

I have no problem paying my dues and I have no problem going out and working the club circuit.

When we're fully engaged in the present moment, no matter what we're doing, the question of meaning never seems to arise. It's because we feel fulfilled and that is inherently meaningful.

No one can force you to stand up, speak up and make a difference. But if you back off and play along, please understand that whatever happens happened, at least in part, because you acquiesced.

What I said to my family is, 'Our history is our own. Let people write what they want, we know who we are.

If Russia's interests and security are threatened, Russia will resist. Everyone needs to know that.

Half of us are blind, few of us feel, and we are all deaf.