It's precisely in despair that you find the most intense pleasure, especially if you are already powerfully conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament.

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.

The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!

The soul is healed by being with children.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

But how could you live and have no story to tell?

If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.

Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.

The implied trust was humbling. He didn't deserve it, but then again, he wouldn't betray it either.

Hatred. Something almost as physical as walls, pianos, or nurses.

I do not outline. There are writers I know and count as my friends who certainly do it the other way but for me part of the adventure is not knowing how it's going to turn out.

I almost exclusively wear skinny jeans. I'm terrified of any other cut of denim.

We are turning our grief into winnable actions.

A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.

Although she was aware that somewhere under her complicated strata of vests and petticoats there was some skin, that didn't mean to say she approved of it.

In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with the mind and lips, but in a certain sense with one's whole being... All good meditative prayer is a conversation of our entire self to God.