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

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

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

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.

You are the decision you make. The things you do. The people you love and who love you. They're the things that really make you who you are.

The way to self-love and admiration is to behave like someone whom you love and admire.

the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.

Scandals, corruption, partisan infighting - no wonder people have lost faith in Congress. I say enough is enough.

The two sides of Bernie - that's a quiet weapon that I have.

you must not use wood to put out the fire.

Some people say, the world can be so alive! It always is, you just do not know it because of the screen of your thinking. You notice it as you become more awake.

My favorite color is green.

Is a knife evil? Only if the wielder is evil.

Shares are not mere pieces of paper. They represent part ownership of a business. So, when contemplating an investment, think like a prospective owner.