The pleasure isn't in owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

You are capable of loving. Love deeply.

ego promenades, flounces, pushes in unwanted places, trips, stands on others, whereas a sense of destiny grounds - you just do what you do

She was young and scared, and hadn't realized there was time to spare.

Regret for a sinful past will remain until we truly believe that for us in Christ that sinful past no longer exists.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

Harde is his heart that loveth nought In May.

Threescore years and ten is enough; if a man can't suffer all the misery he wants in that time, he must be numb.

True diva could not live without smart remark every now and then, a good sip of water.

I came from a warm Jewish family.

Don't tell me you're my friend. Act like one.