I am not mad. I am eccentric perhaps--at least certain people say so; but as regards my profession. I am very much as one says, 'all there.

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

Very few of us are what we seem.

Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.

Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.

Fear is incomplete knowledge.

Books are a habit-forming drug.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

My goal is to write every day. I say it is my ideal. I am careful not to pass judgment or create anxiety if I do not do it. No one lives up to his ideal.

Some leaders are born women.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

black identities are diverse and complex…

People who don't know anything tend to make up fake rules, the real rules being considerably more difficult to learn.

They say there's a heaven for those who wait, some say it's better I say it ain't.

There is a direct relationship between self-discipline and self-esteem.

Everything is a process... some of our eating habits consist of things we can't change, but if we modify it a little and put some exercise in there, we can really make a difference.

I'm happy with the people that I have around me. And they've been friends of mine since I was young, for a very long time.

There is nothing funny about aging: It is rotten and depressing. Anyone who tells you otherwise just hasn't been paying attention.