People are able to live with only half a heart, to live without real compassion, because they are able to use words that are only forms.

Envy has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own foot in its effort to escape.

The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing.

The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they've been at other times.

I have no concern for the common man except that he should not be so common.

Life isn't just to be found, you have to work for it.

Once a Catholic always a Catholic.

The impulse to write a novel comes from a momentary unified vision of life.

The roots of art and play lie very close together.

All fiction for me is a kind of magic and trickery, a confidence trick, trying to make people believe something is true that isn't.

Gerald Middleton was a man of mildly but persistently depressive temperament. Such men are not at their best at breakfast, nor is the week before Christmas their happiest time.

Mastery of impulse is all about self-discipline and choice. The mind is a powerful tool with which we have the ability to be in control of ourselves.

What happens to us are tiny matters compared to us response to any situation.

The power of music, whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace--

...shiny trinkets and frivolous spending make people forget what world they're living in.

Isolation is a gift. Everything else is just a test of your endurance. You will be alone with the Gods. Your nights will flame with fire.

OK, in all seriousness, I would say I couldn't be in a relationship without equality, generosity, integrity, spirit, kindness and humor. And awesomeness.

I'm not sure any narrative model has been more important for me than Benjamin Britten's chamber operas.

In prosperity prepare for a change; in adversity hope for one.

One of the best ways to cultivate a possibility mind set is to prompt yourself to dream one size bigger than you normally do. Let's face it, most people dream too small, they don't think big enough.

I have brothers, and that so-called boyish quality was something that I was deathly self-conscious about when I was younger.