James Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-- but it may be that nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history in trapped in them.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.

Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.

Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.

If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.

You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

The American idea of racial progress is measured by how fast I become white.

Monkeys can't talk, stupid!

I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.

One cannot grow without pain. One cannot improve without it. Suffering drives us to achieve great things.

Orpheus never liked words. He had his music. He would get a funny look on his face and I would say what are you thinking about and he would always be thinking about music.

Some men have a silly theory about beautiful women - that somewhere along the line they'll turn into a monster. That movie gave them a chance to watch it happen.

If I can be more efficient, I'm actually being more respectful to the reader, which then implies a greater intimacy with the reader.

Our souls, shame-wounded by our sins, cling to us yet more, a woman to her lover clinging, the more the more.

It is a rule of nature that taking a day off on the farm sets a person back at least a week.

Ironing is comfort. It's control. I'm a nutty person who likes to make sure everything is in its place.

The Forty Rules of Love is a wise, joyous page-turner... and one that speaks urgently to our war-ravaged times.