It takes me three months of research and nine months of work to produce a book. When I start writing, I do two pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days.

Politicians were like talking dogs in a circus: the fact that they existed was uncommonly interesting, but no sane person would actually believe what they said

Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It's where it all began and ended.

You can't make accommodations in crucial situations and be heroic.

Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

If you can live in Paris, maybe you should.

Live today, for tomorrow we die.

I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain.

The best Paris I know now is in my head.

Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.

Don’t conform. Don’t live in a small dirty pond when the ocean of life is lovingly inviting you.

Memories leave a light in the eyes, just as plain as scars.

There is nothing serious in mortality! Solomon in all his glory was Solomon with the elements of the contemptible lurking in every fold of his robes and in every corner of his palace.

It occurs to her that she should record this flash of insight in her journal - otherwise she is sure to forget, for she is someone who is always learning and forgetting and obliged to learn again.

It may be observed of good writing, as of good blood, that it is much easier to say what it is composed of than to compose it.

Men work harder and more readily when they labor on that which is their own.

Success is best when it is shared.

Look what's happened to Barack Obama over the last two years or George Bush for eight. It's a blood sport. But at some point, I may feel the need to run for office again.

Growing up in the public spotlight and having insecurities like every other girl, I really know what it's like to feel self-conscious.

There's only two kinds of music: the blues and zippety doo-dah.