The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

No one is ever ordinary.

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.

...Our stories are drive by who we are and what we do, and not by the events that happens to us.

To campaign against colonialism is like barking up a tree that has already been cut down.

I am not sure whether ethical absolutes exist. But I am sure that we have to act as if they existed or civilization perishes.

Then there's that 'You're only as old as you feel' business, which is true to a point, but you can't be Shirley Temple on the Good Ship Lollipop forever. Sooner or later, dammit, you're old.

Feeling gratitude isn't born in us-it's something we are taught, and in turn, we teach our children.

We dare not enter the kingdom of liberty with mere life-homage to truth and nonviolence.

No life can be pure in its purpose, and strong in its strife, and all life not be purer and stronger thereby.

Virtue is nothing else than right reason

Knowledge is devalued when it becomes too generally known

I know the nature of comedy, and you never know what will happen with the next movie or whether people will find it funny.