I swooned again – I had that moment of falling in love with reading again.

Homesickness hits hardest in the middle of a crowd in a large, alien city.

Everything is fair in love and art.

He imagined forgiveness was like flying, that it made you soar. He imagined that it looked like an eagle, a silver bolt in the sky, that it was pure light.

Contemporary writers annoyed him, he found their worlds insular, their style too self-conscious and ironic. Theirs was not a literature that belonged to him.

I hope for what I always hope for as a writer: a critical but kind reader. I think that is what we all hope for.

It is gaol that finally reveals to me the beauty of Shakespeare, the spirit in his words, the jaw-dropping audacity of his language.

He was pointing at the moon, but I was looking at his hand.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas.

Regrets are only felt by those who do not understand life's purpose.

Hitler was unapproachable and impenetrable even for those in his close company.

Death is a doorway, Niko, that leads to an adventure greater than any you have ever known.

I won't defile my blessings by imagining that I deserve them. Until every human receives the dignity I casually enjoy, I pray my heart aches with tension and my belly rumbles for injustice.

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

If you hate to lose, you do whatever you need to do to make sure you're business is successful.

It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

The sun was a molten coin burning a circle in the low-hanging overcast, surrounded by a fairy-ring of moisture.