I have so little mastered the art of tranquil living that wherever I go I trail storm clouds of drama around me.

The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school.

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.

The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them.

It is not that I belong to the past, but the past that belongs to me.

Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.

Such creatures of accident are we, liable to a thousand deaths before we are born. But once we are here, we may create our own world, if we choose.

What we get in steerage is not the refuse, but the sinew and bone of all the nations.

You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.

The past was only my cradle, and now it cannot hold me, because I am grown too big.

Joblessness makes you live without the fear of being fired

When writing a book, don't think about who is going to see it. Write about how you feel in the moment. Don't let a good idea get away.

It's when we're given choice that we sit with the gods and design ourselves.

Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening.

The stars don't have to be perfectly aligned for me to do a good job.

I don't want my books to exclude anyone, but if they have to, then I would rather they excluded the people who feel they are too smart for them!

At times truth may not seem probable.

Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable

Knowledge of means without knowledge of ends is animal training.

If you're Irish, it doesn't matter where you go-you'll find family.