In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.

The day after that wedding night I found that a distance of a thousand miles, abyss and discovery and irremediable metamorphosis, separated me from the day before.

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.

If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.

I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.

You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.

Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.

By an image we hold on to our lost treasures, but it is the wrenching loss that forms the image, composes, binds the bouquet.

A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.

The human mind is a brilliant thing. Each person is capable of so much more than they give themselves credit for. I am only one mind amongst billions, though I still wish for my voice to be heard.

I can't do everything for you. You must walk alone to find your soul.

I don't ever wanna drink again, I just, ooh I just need a friend

I learnt, for the first time, the joys of substituting hard, disciplined study for the indulgence of day-dreaming.

Everyone wants to do what the great ones do; but very few are willing to do what they did to become great

I'm odd, I know,' he said. 'It's fear of myself that's made me odd.

I use the gallery as if it were a doctor. I come for ideas and help - to look at situations within painting, rather than paintings.

To toy with something is to manipulate it, to try it out within sets of contexts none of which is determinate.

The world can’t save itself. That’s the message of Christmas.

My wife's nagging is like living near the airport. After a while you don't notice it any more.