I grew up around books - my grandmother's house, where I lived as a small child, was full of books. My father was a history teacher, and he loved the Russian novels. There were always books around.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

Never confuse faith, or belief — of any kind — with something even remotely intellectual.

Keep passing the open windows.

Half my life is an act of revision.

You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .

Elaborate burial customs are a sure sign of decadence.

People rarely get more of anything until they have learned to be grateful for what they already have.

When I'm on stage, that's me. It's blown up, but that's me.

The one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know.

All manifestation of fear is a reflection of the fact that humanity has forgotten its spiritual identity. In beginning to remember it, we put fear on notice that its days are numbered.

People are self-absorbed. I think that the mass ability of communication now probably allows individuals to meet more self-absorbed individuals. It has certainly changed the way that people meet.

You have people who know you are competent enough to do your job and then you have the ones that just hover around.

I always knew that I wanted to be a writer. I think I was six or seven when I learned how to read, and I still remember it.

Denying our weaknesses is neither power, nor protection. We cannot overcome those disabling parts of our own nature which in fact steal our power away, if we do not acknowledge they exist.

My husband said it was him or the cat. I miss him sometimes.