Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs Vesey sat through life.

Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.

The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!

Let the music speak to us of tonight, in a happier language than our own.

We had our breakfasts--whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn't matter, you must have your breakfast.

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.

Your tears come easy, when you're young, and beginning the world. Your tears come easy, when you're old, and leaving it. I burst out crying.

Pedants, who have the least knowledge to be proud of, are impelled most by vanity.

It is true that we choose our life, but it’s also true that we can choose at any moment to change our path.

The red directors were one of the main political forces. Another force was the former Soviet ministers who lost everything because of the transformation of the Soviet Union to Russia.

I have too many control issues, so it just is not good for me to go and watch a film, too soon after I make it.

As long as you're running away from a part of yourself, you can't see immortality.

Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.

The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.

[On amassing art for her collection:] My motto was 'Buy a picture a day' and I lived up to it.

I exercise at the gym with a trainer. I feel it's very healthy, very important - important for everybody. I feel it's good for you. It makes you feel better. It loosens you up a little bit.

I think we're an inspiration to young people, to know they can be honest and not run away from influences that are not jazz. We're definitely breeding a new wave of jazz, for real.

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.