I think empathy's a terrible danger for a writer.

A good book ... leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your own soul.

A happy man has no past, while an unhappy man has nothing else.

There are words and words and none mean anything. And then one sentence means everything.

We have a very foolish notion in Western countries that progress delivers freedom. But progress doesn't necessarily bring moral virtue.

Writing is not lying, nor is it theft. It is a journey and search for transparency between one’s words and one’s soul.

Is it easier for a man to live his life again as a fish, than to accept the wonder of being human? So alone, so frightened, so wanting for what we are afraid to give tongue to.

What reality was ever made by realists?

When forging money, I had always salved my conscience by concluding that I was merely extending the lie of commerce.

Love is the scent of a sleeping back, death a slight draft of bad breath.

It's a sin for a writer to go looking for camels to put into his or her pages. I only want details that are the story.

In a word, in adversity she was the best of comforters, in good fortune the most troublesome of friends...

War is murder writ large.

Too much sensibility creates unhappiness and too much insensibility creates crime.

He also has energy who cannot be deprived of it.

When I was in high school, I became interested in cytochemistry: chemical analysis under the microscope, and trying to understand the composition of cells.

There is a deadening conformity in the culture of cyberspace in which we don't intend to participate.

Ending AIDS is an opportunity for this generation. We should not miss this opportunity

Hate poisons your life.

I have tremendous confidence in the capacity of the poor to transform not only their own lives but also to build a just, humane, and democratic society.

Dandyism is a variety of genius.