I would recommend all men in choosing a profession to avoid any that may require an apology at every turn; either an apology or else a somewhat violent assertion of right.

An author must be nothing if he do not love truth; a barrister must be nothing if he do.

When the ivy has found its tower, when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall, we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper.

Never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.

Fame is a skittish jade, more fickle even than Fortune, and apt to shy, and bolt, and plunge away on very trifling causes.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?

The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.

No more can this Angel teach her, Yet, this guiding wing shall not forsake ...

I feel that's the richest gift that's ever been given to me: I get to do what I love. And it's a really brutal business, and no matter how successful you are you hear "No" more than "Yes."

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

The spotlight will always be on me, but it's something I'm learning to live with as the years go by.

Courage frees us from the fears that would rob us of life itself.

I don't write poetry for the New Yorker. My poems appear in the Nation, mostly.

Grown-ups didn't seem to realize that for me, as for most other schoolboys, it was easier to keep silent than to speak. I was a natural oyster.

Comedy is not commercial; it is risky, because what is funny in one place isn't always funny somewhere else.

I have very set and consistent principles, but I am flexible on tactics. I like to get the job done.

I am not a playwright. A playwright would take "Antigone" and hit it a few clouts and knock it out of shape and restructure it. My versioning was strictly verbal.