I had no student friends to talk to about literature. My tutor was a really nice man, very charming - but he had no literary judgment.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

No monument was ever erected in favor of a critic.

A faithful husband is one whose alimony check is always on time.

Halloween is fun, but it wasn't always my favorite holiday. I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Exsanguinated," said Jace, impressed. "That's a big word." "And you're a big-" "Tsk tsk," he interrupted. "No swearing in church.

Each man believes only his experience.

After watching wrestling for 20 years, I thought I had enough confidence to do it. There were no wrestling schools at the time.

When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn't know it had a name.

A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality.

Life isn't a balance between throwing out and inviting in.

You must act with all energy. Mass searches. Execution for concealing arms.