Obsessions are the only things that matter.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Everything human is alien to me.

Life is a long failure of understanding ... a long, mistaken shutting of the heart.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

One situation – maybe one alone – could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness.

And no book, and possibly no painting, when it is finished, is ever exactly like the first dream of it.

I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.

How easy it was to lie when one had to lie!

For neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not.

It always gets late with you. - Is that a compliment?

I hate you.'My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me. She really did.'I love you, ' was all I could say in return.

Monterey was the Maraschino cherry on top of the Sundae that was the '60s. It was totally unprecedented, and the audience was unprecedented in their joy.

I've played a lot of fathers in my life, and it seems that my kids are getting older and older in films, and I'm always surprised at how good they are.

Sometimes when your child talks, your friends cannot understand what he says; but the mother understands very well. So if our prayer comes from the heart, God understands our language.

If kids and teenagers can get into a band, its probably not because they think its brainy.

The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall.

Destroying species is like tearing pages out of an unread book, written in a language humans hardly know how to read, about the place where they live.

I think UKIP [ UK Independence Party] and the BNP [British National Party] are very, very English concerns. If they gather strength they're going to add to this schism between Scotland and England.

We hunger for nobility: the rare words and acts that harmonize simplicity and truth.

She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off