I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.

People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren't already complicated enough.

Remember me, even if it's only in a corner and secretly. Don't let me go.

Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.

There are no second chances in life, except to feel remorse.

Never trust girls who let themselves be touched right away. But even less those who need a priest for approval.

The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.

Books hold no passports. There's only one true literary tradition: the human.

Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art.

Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them.

People talk too much. Humans aren't descended from monkeys. They come from parrots.

Nothing like the pure, unpolluted air we get to breathe in these mountains, and nothing like being away from cities.

Screw the daring tough guy image, what happened with us broke me.

It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.

Los Angeles is a city known as much for its sun as for its stars and its dirty air.

I have definitely reached the same level as Madonna in terms of sales. I'm really pleased about that.

I'm a little sheepish about it. Whenever I meet fans and they're like, 'Oh, you're so sexy,' I just don't get that. There's no way one man can be universally sexy.

Write for the love of your art. Someplace down the road, the money, the fame, they'll come, but by that time you won't be thinking in terms of money or fame.

I'm offended by the is-ought fallacy, which has been used to justify slavery, women not being allowed to vote, children working in factories.

I wanted to be a songwriter.I didn't so much want to be a performer.I more grew into that just from being a songwriter.

Happy endings are a luxury of fiction