It cuts one sadly to see the grief of old people; they've no way o' working it off; and the new spring brings no new shoots out on the withered tree.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.

Don't judge a book by its cover

A man's a man. But when you see a king, you see the work of many thousand men.

Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

The rich ate and drank freely, accepting gout and apoplexy as things that ran mysteriously in respectable families.

Plainness has its peculiar temptations and vices quite as much as beauty.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Don't you meddle with me, and I won't meddle with you.

Regardless of gender, one has to be willing to take what belongs and what has been promised, by not backing down and by not giving up. Never be willing to throw in the towel and accept defeat!

There are all sorts of books offering advice on how to deal with life-threatening situations, but where's the advice on dealing with embarrassing ones?

The only way we can change our world is to take responsibility for our part in it.

Fiction is risky for writers also in that the process of making certain books, of shaping certain narratives, leaves scars and marks on your inner life.

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable.

Of course there's objective truth, but when we're looking at people's accounts of it, it seems the real truth lies in the accretion of all these different versions.

There are so many forms, I believe people are bright enough to make their own laws, more subtle ones than we've had before.

I have decided to tell the world that I accept my homosexuality and celebrate this gift that life has given me.

My dad taught me from my youngest childhood memories through these connections with Aboriginal and tribal people that you must always protect people's sacred status, regardless of the pest.

I do not believe in hypocrisy.