The person doing the learning is the person writing the book as much as the person reading it.

Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.

The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere.

One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at.

Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels.

To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf.

All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.

Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it.

Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.

When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen.

If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff

Somebody will beat both [contents and price] sooner or later because that is good old Free Enterprise, where the consumer benefits from battles between jolly green giants.

Thinking I'm a moron gives people something to feel smug about, " Charles Wallace said. "Why should I disillusion them?

I want a minister to be in charge of a line department so they have clear political accountability.

On a street of right and wrong in every inch of sadness, rocks and tanks go hand in hand with madness.

In corporate culture, in sports culture, in the media, we honor those who win at all costs.

The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don't have no down time.

What better way to expand your imagination than to read!

The sole virtue of losing your short-term memory is that it does free you to be your own editor.

I wanted to find a cave and hang out there for the rest of my life and be a cave painter and eat dirt.

I don't know how to play the guitar, so having to be on stage in front of people doing something you don't really know how to do, it's terrifying.