Small children believe themselves to be gods, or some of them do, and they can only be satisfied when the rest of the world goes along with their way of seeing things.

I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.

I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.

A story only matters, I suspect, to the extent that the people in the story change.

But there was a kitten on my pillow, and it was purring in my face and vibrating gently with every purr, and, very soon, I slept.

Books were safer than other people anyway.

Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.

I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all.

Words save our lives, sometimes.

You get on with your own life. Lettie gave it to you. You just have to grow up and try and be worth it.

They were not my friends, after all. They were just the people I went to school with.

The great aim of your life should be to keep your powers up to the highest possible standard, to so conserve your energies, guard your health, that you can make every occasion a great occasion.

Day after day, night after night, my life at home is far from bright, but even home has more variety, than I can find in cafe society.

Thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us, and this terrible knowledge requires us to act differently.

I've heard it said that the most dangerous animal on the planet is the adolescent male.

The Mormon mission to Africa, as to other dark-skinned parts of the world, was for a long time hobbled by the racism of the movement's scripture.

As an athlete, you choose your sport and are drawn into it but your passion should never be driven by fame and fortune but a desire to create something special that people will always remember.

I bet on everything. Everything. It's just like, 'I bet you I can spin my chair longer.' Everything, I say 'I bet you.' I love to win.

There's nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts, and that's a fact.

I've been involved in something which was chaotic and insane. All I can say now is that I am, and intend to stay, a single man.

I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's okay. I can accept it.