I don't think you can talk about progress in art - movement, but not progress. You can speak of a point on a line for the purpose of locating things, but it's a horizontal line, not a vertical one.

The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.

The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.

Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.

Any genuine work of art generates new work.

I believe that because I had obtained a wife who was made up of wife-signs (beauty, charm, softness, perfume, cookery) I had found love.

Yes, success is everything. Failure is more common. Most achieve a sort of middling thing, but fortunately one's situation is always blurred, you never know absolutely quite where you are.

The death of God left the angels in a strange position.

We are what we have been told about ourselves. We are the sum of the messages we have received. The true messages. The false messages.

The privileged classes can afford psychoanalysis and whiskey. Whereas all we get is sermons and sour wine. This is manifestly unfair. I protest, silently.

Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.

People hide truths about themselves from themselves. Such self-deception is a coping mechanism, and to one extent or another, most people begin deceiving themselves when they're children.

Life is not a competition with others. Life is a competition with yourself—to do your personal best each day.

As soon as you become aware that something is not working, immediately shift your focus to the desired result.

To give you an idea of how fast we travelled - we left with two rabbits and when we arrived we still had only two.

I love 'Capote.' Huge fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman; if he's not my all-time favorite actor he's definitely in my top five. I just love him so much.

I realized I could run after finding out that my dad used to run and it gave me the morale that if he did it then maybe I could also run.

Would you make men better - set them an example. The millenium will never come until governments cease from governing, and the meddler is at rest.

Does a rose exist that I might behold it? Or do I exist that a rose might be beheld?

Canada is not really a place where you are encouraged to have large spiritual adventures.

People cannot give up their cause, their rights, for fear of defeat.