Most people ended up, after only a couple of months, so far away from where they'd intended to go, stuck in some barbed underbrush of a quagmire when they'd meant to head straight to the ocean.

I hate how the people who really get you are the ones you can never hold on to for very long. And the ones who don’t understand you at all stick around.

People had an illogical, self-serving rationale when it came to interpreting the behavior of others.

Not returning phone calls is the severest form of torture in the civilized world.

Always live your life with your biography in mind.

Sovereign. Deadly. Perfect.

It's a common feeling for people to feel intermittent antipathy toward individuals they're familiar with.

Within every elaborate lie, a kernel of truth.

He said you couldn't pretend the terrible things in life didn't happen. You can't clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It's how you learn. And try to make improvements.

Making love to Aurelia was like rummaging through a card catalog in a deserted library, searching for one very obscure, little-read entry on Hungarian poetry.

For every man there exists bait he cannot resist swallowing.

She deserved at least one person who saw her and knew how good she was.

Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.

I don't write songs about a specific, elusive thing. I write about love, and everyone knows what it is like to have your heart broken.

There is no right or wrong way to write a novel. Each journey is different for every individual work and for every writer. The first error is never to begin; the second is never to finish.

Of course I knew the work of Roland Kirk and Harry Carney and the specific uses they would make of circular breathing, so I knew it was physically possible.

I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it's too late.

It’s nice to be able to try and build the life you want for yourself.

Remember that whatever anyone does, it is an effort to meet a need.

Day by day become more and more intimate with the inner stillness, joy and love which is the fragrance your own pure heart. Keep quiet.