The odour of Burgundy, and the smell of French sauces, and the sight of clean napkins and long loaves, knocked as a very welcome visitor at the door of our inner man.

It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained.

A good woman's arms round a man's neck is a lifebelt thrown out to him from heaven.

Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.

Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it.

They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.

If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.

Being in the present moment, one can step outside the mechanical train of life, and this is where the inner revolution begins.

Please don't judge me too much until you are older and know more things. (Spoken from mother to daughter)

I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals.

Obama doesn't believe in American leadership and the net result is we have a caliphate the size of Indiana.

I get bored very easily. I do like excitement.

Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing.

It's weird juggling children in a rhinestone outfit.

No! Once the music plays, it creates me. The instruments move me, through me, they control me. Sometimes I'm uncontrollable and it just happens - boom, boom, boom! - once it gets inside you.

I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called the body

I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn't.