Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

you dont have to follow trends, you should set them, because there are too many 'her's and 'him's but there is only one 'you'

You must study to be frank with the world: Frankness is the child of honesty and courage.

People change. I wouldn't like to be accountable for the interviews I've done, or the person I was when I was 20, 21.

If you don't deal with your shadows, you are condemned to repeat the same mistake over and over, as a human being or as a society.

Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great.

The world, that grey-bearded and wrinkled profligate, decrepit, without being venerable.

So all that is said of the wise man by Stoic or Oriental or modern essayist, describes to each reader his own idea, describes his unattained but attainable self.

We prepared to go ashore to publish for the first time in New Zealand the glad tidings of the gospel.

I beg your pardon. I’m not gross. (Simone) Grody to the max. Gag me with a spoon. I’ve seen you in the mornings. You’re not exactly well coiffed. (Jesse)

Whoever supports the farmer is the guy for America.