Mice: What is the best early training for a writer? Y.C.: An unhappy childhood.

If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.

Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.

Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

I drink to make other people more interesting.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

Childish certainty that nothing could get him while under the covers wasn't much comfort, but it was a start.

If any belief or societal dogma prevents peaceful societal change or progress, that society will inevitably be victims of miserable violent changes.

A racist is just an ignorant man afraid of people who are different from him.

There's a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it.

The real difference between a man's scientific judgments about himself and the judgment of others about him is he has added sources of knowledge.

Women can also be creative in total isolation. I know excellent women artists who do original work without any response to speak of. Maybe they are used to lack of feedback. Maybe they are tougher.

No virtue is more universally accepted as a test of good character than trustworthiness .

I see a lot of parents now who are really supporting their kids playing music.

Beauty is about perception, not about make-up. I think the beginning of all beauty is knowing and liking oneself.

If it is necessary to die in order to live like men, what harm in dying?