I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.

And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.

I barely knew I had skin before I met you.

Being in love, you know... it's not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can't just go out and get another to replace her.

Even ashes are a part of your freedom.

I do love the past but wouldnt want to live in it.

Why do gentlemen's voices carry so clearly, when women's are so easily stifled?

Why is it we can never love the people we ought to?

I never expected my books to do even as well as they have. I still feel grateful for it, every single day.

With every step I took away from her, the movement at my heart and between my legs grew more defined: I felt like a ventriloquist, locking his protesting dolls in to a trunk.

For was that all, she thought bleakly, that love ever was? Something that saved one from loneliness? A sort of insurance policy against not counting?

You don't need to sit on a throne before you have the chance to dream

He enables [his children] to walk before him

A problem is a solution yet to be discovered

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.

I go to Saint Barth in the French West Indies for two weeks each year. That place is amazing. Amazing people, beautiful beaches, great wine, wonderful harbors... It's incredibly romantic.

I think the War on Terror is really absurd, especially coming from a country that is founded on terrorism.

I was denied a record contract for 15 years, so I'm not going to be too picky about what I do. I don't have the juice to say no too many times.

The way people age is not the way people age ... everyone is draining everyone!

It's weird, because usually if you're British and you go to America you play baddies; but I play naughty people here and goodies in America.

The key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts. Convention is the enemy of progress.