It is the test of a novel writer's art that he conceal his snake-in-the-grass; but the reader may be sure that it is always there.

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.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.

Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity

I am pushed by those who believe in me, but motivated by those who don't.

Driving race cars was an avenue for me to learn how to build my own car, and that was my ambition all along.

Adversity makes me hungrier. I thrive on being able to make a way out of no way.

The truth is ugly: we have art so as not to perish from the truth.

People who were so good. There were angels.

I saw 'True Blood' once, and I like the jazzy feel of it and stuff.

We are 25 years too late. If the object is to avoid dangerous change, we've already had it. The object now is to avoid really dangerous change.

My parents are opposites who balance each other out.