Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad.

You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone. We are alone in the most beautiful place in the world.

A room is, after all, a place where you hide from the wolves. That's all any room is.

The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still.

I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness.

I am the only real truth I know.

Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.

I've been so ridiculous all my life that a little bit more or a little bit less hardly matters now.

Love was a terrible thing. You poisoned it and stabbed at it and knocked it down into the mud - well down - and it got up and staggered on, bleeding and muddy and awful. Like - like Rasputin.

We can't all be happy, we can't all be rich, we can't all be lucky - and it would be so much less fun if we were... There must be the dark background to show up the bright colours.

I know a number of clever people who lack wisdom.

Leave the body in such a way that the Supreme Power gets notified and becomes aware, attentive and receptive to receive us, the way a child returns back home after decades of touring.

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like all-embracing compassion.

You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.

Can words such as Orthodox, Jew, or Catholic really express some sort of exclusive personal virtues or merits?

What you're thinking about is what you are being.

If the reader doesn't understand what you're saying, you're talking to yourself.

People want to be famous, they want to be loved, they want to be accepted. They want to push aside their past and the things that have been embarrassing to them.

God has given each of us our "marching order." Our purpose here on Earth is to find those orders and carry them out. Those orders acknowledge our special gifts.

The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for others