The condition every art requires is, not so much freedom from restriction, as freedom from adulteration and from the intrusion of foreign matter.

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

Success is never so interesting as struggle

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

The sky was a midnight-blue, like warm, deep, blue water, and the moon seemed to lie on it like a water-lily, floating forward with an invisible current.

The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor.

It takes a great deal of experience to become natural.

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.

Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky.

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

The end is nothing; the road is all.

Embrace your past. It's your greatest teacher. When you learn and apply those lessons than it no longer defines your future.

We're all getting too smart. Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger, and the world dries up and dies when there's too much thought and not enough heart.

I think it's because it shows that people--or hobbits, as the case may be--can find strength they didn't know they had.

I stared you chew down your Swedish meatballs. I hope you could see how you chewed my heart then spit it out

Judgments about who belongs in the Hall of Fame are extremely subjective.

My dad used to say, 'Just be yourself and you'll be fine,' but it's really, really true.

To me the outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab.

Genius is an overused word. The world has known only about a half dozen geniuses. I got only fairly near.

Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon the truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages.

I think all parts come with baggage unless it is a brand new play. If one was daunted by that, you would never do anything.