I have always moved by intuition alone. I have no system, literary or political. I have no guiding political idea.

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.

Don't win someone you're willing to lose

No ordinary effort stops the wheel.In sleep it spins without resistance.Passively, falling deeper, lacking the will to activate any change.

Be unselfish in your love. Remember you are not the cat.

Relying on another is an expression of attachment, not love, a manifestation of insecurity and suffering, not understanding the true nature of our lives.

Much of our adult morality, in books and out of them, has a stuffiness unworthy of childhood. Our grown-up conclusions often rest on perilously soft bottom.

I've met some of my best friends in the world working for Victoria's Secret.

The Afro-American experience is the only real culture that America has. Basically, every American tries to walk, talk, dress and behave like African Americans.

I'm not as thrilled with myself as I used to be.

When I'm at my grandparents', I know I literally have to do nothing but relax, enjoy myself, and enjoy my family members' company.

Giving it to the audience is probably the easiest thing. Finding out what they truly want is probably the most difficult.