I believed that if I was to call myself a writer, I should live on writing. If I could not live on it, even simply, I should destroy every scrap, every trace, every notebook and live some other way.

Decide what the rest of your life is to be. Whatever you are now, you might be forever.

Success can only be measured in terms of distance traveled.

A short story is what you see when you look out of the window.

There are a great many opinions in this world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble.

All lives are interesting; no one life is more interesting than another. Its fascination depends on how much is revealed, and in what manner.

Writing is like a love affair: the beginning is the best part.

She and Marie were Montreal girls, not trained to accompany heroes, or to hold out for dreams, but just to be patient.

I write every day as a matter of course It is not a burden. It is the way I live.

A writer's life stands in relation to his work as a house does to a garden, related but distinct.

[My father] had spent his own short time like a priest in charge of a relic, forever expecting the blessed blood to liquefy.

God is a necessary evil.

To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past, one only adds a new link.

If they don’t respect you, respect yourself and leave that situation.

My parents armed me with an amazing sense of humor, and it's what you need when, well, it's what anyone needs in this world.

The more liberty you give away the more you will have.

People who know a lot of the same things can hardly help talking about them.

The problem with anger is that once it burns out, you're left with empty tanks.

At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.

Being a good director is knowing sometimes when not to say something.

Learn to become still. And to take your attention away from what you don't want, and all the emotional charge around it, and place your attention on what you wish to experience.