I think the idea of Mary Poppins has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life.

The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable of a hero's name will elicit whole chapters of stories.

Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?

There’s great beauty on this world if you just have the eyes to see it.

All of us are subject to being passive to the social ills around us. It's a struggle not to become, by staying silent, an accomplice.

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown.

Child and serpent, star and stone — all one.

If we are going to teach the world to stop hating the different, the other, then we’re going to have to start with children.

Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story's fate.

Tea is balm for the soul, don't you agree?

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie.

Andy Warhol made fame more famous.

It takes a real man to make a true confession-a Chocolate Soldier will excuse or cloak his sin.

I think Obama was terribly sexist.

When you imitate the enemy's tactics, you take on his liabilities.

Building awareness and responsibility is the essence of good coaching.

Always bear this in mind, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.

People respect me; I respect them. I'll never change. I realize who I am.

See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training.

The only true hope for civilization-the conviction of the individual that his inner life can affect outward events and that, whether or not he does so he is responsible for them.