Literature nowadays is a trade... the successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets.

Time is money says the proverb, but turn it around and you get a precious truth. Money is time.

For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous.

For one thing, I know every book of mine by its scent.

I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils haricots - those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those tabulated humbugs, those certified aridites calling themselves human food!

The mind which renounces, once and for ever, a futile hope, has its compensation in ever-growing calm.

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.

Money is made at Christmas out of holly and mistletoe, but who save the vendors would greatly care if no green branch were procurable?

Parks are but pavement disguised with a growth of grass.

Leaders who are silent and do nothing are as guilty and do worse than those who commit these horrific attacks

Sometimes it is the destinations out of reach that create the circumstances God uses to remind that we are never out of his reach.

Life is large. We cannot possibly grasp the whole of it in the few years that we have to live. What is vital? What is essential? What may we profitably let go?

Penelope Spheeris is a wonderful lady. She's a very talented director, and I curse better because of her.

I went to school on a military base in Germany. I got a lot of my clothes at the army surplus store.

Surely going to bed with a man before marriage was the most courageous act of my life.

One of the most persistent cultural tics of the early 21st century is Americans' reluctance to absorb, let alone prepare for, bad news.

To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.

Satire is what closes on Saturday night.

Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small.