I think she always nursed a small mad hope.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

I'd never forget how it felt to say those words. To be in our place. In love with you, in love with us, in love with our secret, with the island we were building, keeping out the whole wide world.

The proprietor of stock is necessarily a citizen of the world, and is not necessarily attached to any particular country.

Most people say they want justice, but they don't really want justice. They want revenge. They want to see the pain spread around equally.

Abandon desire for this world, and God will love you. Abandon desire for others’ goods, and people will love you.

The way to get better at a skill is to force yourself to practice just beyond your limits.

marriage is like money - seem to want it, and you never get it.

The poet may say or sing, not as things were, but as they ought to have been; but the historian must pen them, not as they ought to have been, but as they really were.

People ask me how can I be stylish, how can I be elegant and what can I wear? My only answer is study! You have to learn.

I can't imagine any greater fear Than waking up without you here And though the sun would still shine on My whole world would all be gone

I've always written very tightly, and there's a good reason for that. There's no point in using words that you're not going to apply.