Like most writers I spend a lot of my time sort of thinking, "It's such agony, I can't do it."

Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.

The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere.

One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at.

Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels.

To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf.

All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.

Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it.

Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.

When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen.

If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff

Lost, so small amid that dark, hands grown cold, body image fading down corridors of television sky.

The first thing you must know as an actor or director is the space you will inhabit. See the architecture imagine where things can happen in space.

A lot of music for me was about - I mean aside from the fun and challenge of writing and being really good friends with my bandmates - getting to perform.

A losing trader can do little to transform himself into a winning trader. A losing trader is not going to want to transform himself. That's the kind of thing winning traders do.

The truth is I don't feel too bad for my age. I actually have a better shape now than I used to.

No one should be offended - that's not my style.

Time doesn't flow at the same rate for everyone. You can change time. You can slow it down, you can speed it up.

The moment I understood this - that my Parkinson's was the one thing I wasn't going to change - I started looking at the things I could change, like the way research is funded.

My children forgave me at a time when I could barely forgive myself.

The legislator should keep two things constantly before his eyes: 1. The pure theory developed to its minutest details; 2. The particular condition of actual things which he designs to reform.