One learns much more by writing fiction, because the insights come from those deeper subconscious levels where the greater and more interesting truths lie.

We write out of revenge against reality, to dream and enter the lives of others.

Americans and their desire to be novelists, the American novel should be listed in medical dictionaries alongside Megalomania and Obsessional Neuroses.

Only friends will tell you the truths you need to hear to make your life bearable.

Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams?

I shall never cease to marvel at the way we beg for love and tyranny.

All our parents have levels of deviousness. We're driven to write about this discrepancy between the bright shining selves they invented and the monsters lurking underneath.

Art is both a vengeance against reality and a reconciliation with it.

I venture that those of us who are most serene when faced with the possibility of nothingness are the ones who've reached furthest to the downward and upward of their beings.

As to why people like Joseph Lelyveld are writing memoirs, I think they're just catching on the coattails of the trend.

one forgives parents as naturally as one emancipates oneself from them - usually shortly afterward.

anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.

The bridge is said to bestow good luck on lovers who share a kiss right where we are standing.Ethan Sterling - Private Emotions

There are more important things in life than chasing after this myth of perfection.

Insiders say that Trump is running for president as a publicity stunt. That's not the Donald Trump I know.

Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know us as we are.

Pain destroys the illusions of false, that is, elitist pleasures. It burns from the inside out. It, therefore, sensitizes us to what is truly beautiful in life.

Don't sacrifice a good life for a good time.

Pain results from a judgment you have made about a thing. Remove the judgment and the pain disappears.

Feeding people is a way of loving them.

When delivering something like an important letter or other written materials, grasp it firmly in your hand as you go and do not release it once, but hand it over directly to the recipient.