The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism.

The sunflower is mine, in a way.

Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you're put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

Art is to console those who are broken by life.

How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.

I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.

If one truly loves nature one finds beauty everywhere.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

For great things do not done just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.

You must know the purpose of your life and reach it confidently

(speaking of Ann Radcliffe) A work of art worthy of the name is one which gives us back the freshness of the emotions of childhood.

...intimacy isn't something men talk about. They may talk about politics, literature, stocks, or sports, depending on the man, but about their love lives they keep silent, even to their dying breath.

I've always read, I've always admired writers and was lucky really to meet some extraordinary ones and become friends. Certain times you just like people, and it grows out like a nautilus shell.

Most of the people who write to me are really clever, really engaged. They just want to say that they have read my book and liked it.

Best believe that needle hurt you Best to see these true colors Than follow one of your false virtues A little secret to make you think: Why is the crazy stuff we never say, poetry in ink?

I'm always working. Like a lot of creative people I can't switch off. I can't disassociate work from pleasure. My job is my hobby.

A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.

All investigations of Time, however sophisticated or abstract, have at their true base the human fear of mortality.

The worst bankrupt in the world is the man who has lost his enthusiasm. Let a man lose everything else in the world, but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success.