That summer when she was eighteen, it seemed anything could happen, anything at all.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

She could have had a life as potent and dangerous as literature itself.

The secret of flight is this -- you have to do it immediately, before your body realizes it is defying the laws.

There is a beauty in the world, though it's harsher than we expect it to be.

we become the stories we tell ourselves

I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. I was something else altogether. There were so many different ways to be beautiful.

Language in fiction is made up of equal parts meaning and music. The sentences should have rhythm and cadence, they should engage and delight the inner ear.

I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.

One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper.

Take me with you. I want a doomed love. I want streets at night, wind and rain, no one wondering where I am.

People who personify excellence are people who invoke the same in others.

Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE A PRIVATE JET IT WILL TAKE YOU EVERYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE.

It's best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it's requested, and when it's a life threatening situation.

Life is large. We cannot possibly grasp the whole of it in the few years that we have to live. What is vital? What is essential? What may we profitably let go?

I like getting older. When you're in your twenties you're really forging for your future. Things take shape later on.

I know how pathetically inadequate my medium [painting] is, but unfortunately I dispose of no other.

These were everyday sounds magnified by darkness. And darkness was nothing - it was not a substance, it was not a presence, it was no more than an absence of light.

I saw A Little Romance [and] I was so in love with Laurence Olivier. I watched that movie over and over and just fell in love with love.

There was still food rationing in England and life was difficult all through my 2 year stay in Oxford.