The only way to keep a secret in Washington, if you are the one person who knows it, is never to tell another living soul.

[On social climbing:] Everything that goes up must come down.

[To the editor of the Harlan, Kentucky, Daily Enterprise, as a kindergartener:] I know everything that goes on in this town, and if you give me a job so will you.

In Harlan, Kentucky, we told stories the way some people play music. ... In the mountains, storytelling is truly an art form, and as much recreation as communication.

So rapid is the flight of dreams upon the wings of imagination.

Put first things first and we get second things thrown in:Put second things first and we lose both first things and second things.

You are an author! You will be a published author. Take pride in that, and present only your best work. Then, continue to improve, so your best gets even better.

There are no mineral monsters.

The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time.

I want to make all Europe and America know it - I want to make England feel her weakness if she refuses to give the justice we the Irish require - the restoration of our domestic parliament.

Obviously, you go through a lot of emotional turmoil in a divorce.

I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet, let alone settle down to the process of writing.

It's very easy to fall in love when things are great, but the way to really fall in love is when things aren't great.

A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes.