I had just wanted to be part of a story; I wanted to be a person who had a story to tell.

I love to sleep. My astrological sign is the sloth.

Opening a book in the middle of a chapter always made me feel like I was interrupting a group of strangers, wandering unannounced into their villages and apartments and taxis and slums.

Talking to a therapist, I thought, was like taking your clothes off and then taking your skin off, and then having the other person say, "Would you mind opening up your rib cage so that we can start?

Boredom is why God invented books.

Believing in books is a lot like believing in God.

A drowning person doesn't rescue herself.

My mother says that some books are good no matter when you read them, and some are good at a particular moment; they come into your life at just the right time.

Depression is an illness, and no fault of the person who suffers from it

Maybe the things she loved most weren't meant to be permanent. Maybe the fact that they existed was enough.

The Bible is a hologram and Jesus is on every page.

I love music. It's freedom, a way to deal with pent-up frustration.

Things they don't understand always cause a sensation among the English.

I learned quickly that when I made others laugh, they liked me.

Children enjoy inflicting pain until unhappiness teaches them tenderness.

Poverty is not simply having no money - it is isolation, vulnerability, humiliation and mistrust.

Earth is our only citadel in the universe; but we have illogically built many more fortresses within this beautiful castle!

I don't care very much for the People Magazine approach to applied economics.

Study the public behavior of top stars and you can detect a keen attentiveness to brand value.

All attention is introspection.