I have absolutely no concept of work, except for university. But I like to talk to people a lot about their jobs.

Hope is like one of those orchids that grows around toxic waste: lovely in itself - and an assertion, if you like, of indefatigable good - but a sure sign that something nasty lies underneath.

As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next.

That's writing for you: when you make space for passion, it doesn't turn up.

How can there be so many mothers in the world but so little sense of what it might be to become one?

The creativity of childhood was often surrendered amid feelings of unworthiness. So the idea that ­others are demanding to be given it back - to be "taught" - is disturbing.

Childhood, after all, is not an ending, but rather a state full of potent curiosity.

Even if they knew the truth of their own feelings, most mothers would be socially and emotionally incapable of revealing it.

Honest criticism, I suppose, has its place. But honest writing is infinitely more valuable.

Hope is one of those no-win-no-fee things, and although it needs some encouragement to survive, its existence doesn't necessarily prove anything.

People are least aware of others when demonstrating their own power over them.

Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!

Each of us has a day ... when he has to accept finally the fact that he is a man.

My best advice for mental training is simply to create good habits, in order to build a sense of security and calm around you.

I fall down on the side of free will, simply because if you look at where I came from, and what I was able to do in my life, what was able to happen.

So many kids and adults, too, have gotten just about one of the roughest breaks that can happen to a person. We can help these people.

Live today like there's no tomorrow!

We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat.

Make your influence a good one. Act in a way you would be proud of even if the whole world was watching, because your example could mean the world to just one person.

I am very interested and fascinated how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other.