The man who has no inner life is a slave of his surroundings, as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air.

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.

That's the risk you take if you change: that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.

A snake will always be a snake, even if you put a chain around its neck and try to make it walk upright.

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.

One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.

What a surprise to find you could shift the contents of your head like rearranging furniture in a room.

If this was adulthood the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that she could now eat dessert without eating her vegetables.

The requirements of romantic love are difficult to satisfy in the back seat of a Dodge Dart.

Dying was apparently a weaning process; all the attachments to familiar people and objects have to be undone.

Feeling passion fuels your spirit and feeds your joy.

Saying goodbye to someone you love isn’t really the hard part. It’s living every day, not being able to say anything to them at all.

Poverty and desperation are the parents of ambition. (character Norm Woodruff)

Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted.

You are mistaken

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.

But times changed, and I changed, and I didn't feel that way anymore. The Beatles were happening. I think that was probably the main thing. The Beatles just changed the whole world of music.

Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.

That was one of those moments where I felt so confident. I played three matches in the same day.

Why should I marry? One marries to have children, but I already have children! My nieces and nephews are my children.