One of the depressing things in England is the total orthodoxy: the law is handed down from Downing Street.

In oratory the will must predominate.

Sudden resolutions, like the sudden rise of mercury in a barometer, indicate little else than the variability of the weather.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.

Smiles are the language of love.

Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.

When you get older, then you feel death not at the end of the road, but death all around you, in everything. Life is saturated with death. I feel death everywhere.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

No one but a fool is always right.

Nobody knows everything—one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn—and everybody makes mistakes.

Familiarity can provide the misguided illusion of understanding. Assume nothing.

How beautiful she is, Our Lady of compassion! How dear! How utterly unselfish! How filled with joy for Him - and us - in the depths of her own agony and desolation!

Every man is a hero of his own story.

A lot of ideas don't translate very well into art. To say, "Oh my god, the grass is green ..." You're going to end up with a big green painting.

As I think all Americans understand on both sides of the aisle, the Social Security system as it is structured today is a pay-as-you-go system.

On the road, I weigh 168. At home, ten more.

I'm a really stoic artist. I'm serious a lot of times. I can joke and play sometimes, but most of the time, I'm stoic.

(Doc) Cramer told me I was hitting too much off the front foot and that I wasn't using the right kind of bat. I had been using a long, skinny stick and Cramer got me a thicker one.

Any great movie you watch has some element of darkness or loss or some suffering in it. That's what makes the fun parts fun.