It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader's ear to hear anything of praise from him.

And I myself a Catholic will be, So far at least, great saint, to pray to thee. Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow On us, the Poets militant below.

Life is an incurable disease.

For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.

Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.

A mighty pain to love it is, And 'tis a pain that pain to miss; But, of all pains, the greatest pain Is to love, but love in vain.

Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.

I would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, to-morrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them; I have lived today.

Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise.

As for being much known by sight, and pointed out, I cannot comprehend the honor that lies withal; whatsoever it be, every mountebank has it more than the best doctor.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

You cannot ask someone to like you or love you more than you like or love yourself. YOU have to set the standard.

I think it's too easy to recount your unhappy memories when you write about yourself. You bask in your own innocence. You revere your grief. You arrange your angers at their most becoming angles.

Any appellative at all savouring of arbitrary rank is unsuitable to a man of liberal and catholic mind.

Managing a business, small or large, today requires an extremely disciplined, thoughtful approach with regard to the pressure that people are under.

I realized the structure in a collection is how they're put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written.

I've always been criticised for how filthy my material is. Victoria Wood said to me once, 'I wish I was a bit ruder, like you,' and I said, 'Well, I wish I was a bit cleaner, like you.'

And I remember looking at Gray Davis and, you know, Gray is the consummate political operative.

I'm a dad, and that's really important to me, and I realize now that I'm a dad that it's a major part of my identity.

Avarice is the miser's dream, as fame is the poet's.