No nation keeps its word. A nation is a big, blind worm, following what? Fate perhaps. A nation has no honor, it has no word to keep.

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.

Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.

To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful.

Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire

If our religion is based on salvation, our chief emotions will be fear and trembling. If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.

We are not what happened to us, we are what we wish to become.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.

To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.

I didn’t say a word. He wouldn’t be using oxygen. K2 is more dangerous than Everest.

When one's own problems are unsolvable and all best efforts are frustrated it is lifesaving to listen to other people's problems.

Oh for someone with a heart, head and hand. Whatever they call them, what do I care, aristocrat, democrat, autocrat, just be it one that can rule and dare not lie.

Knowing is half the battle. Explaining it is the other half.

If I wasn't a writer, I would be depressed.

Learn to know every man under you, get under his skin, know his faults. Then cater to him - with kindness or roughness as his case may demand.

My other creative outlet is knitting; aside from being fun, it is my antidote to the film business: I have full creative control, there is no development process, and I can self-finance.

The energy I was sensing in audiences was political energy, as much as anything else.

It's a really fulfilling life if you can make your job what you love doing.