I have to be by myself when I write, and I never know how long it will take. It is like making butter. Sometimes it will come in a few minutes, and sometimes I have to churn away for hours.

I've come to believe that every one who reaches the best that life holds for him reaches it through some Desert of Waiting.

Remember, men need laughter sometimes more than food.

That's all that death is ... Just a going away into another country ... Only the separation is harder to bear because there can be no letters to bridge the silence.

we are just as apt to meet the grandmothers as the wolves when we go traveling.

To callow wings no flight is too high to attempt. At sixteen all things are possible.

I’ve got something so lovely to think about that I’d like to go back and sit down in the garden, and just think and think until dark without being interrupted by anybody.

Only the strong soul can accept the truth.

The past is like a deceased person. It has to be remembered.

It is such an uncomfortable feeling to know one is a fool

Lawdy Mama, those Friday nights when Suzy wore her dresses down tight.

It is sometimes necessary for each person. Fill up with delicious food, get drunk, sing loudly and chat frivolously.

If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language capacities from my children growing up here, and vice versa.

It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.

The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.

You can ask my wife about my stamina.

So listen everybody to what I got to say, there's hope for tomorrow, if we wake up today.