The primary subject of fiction is and has always been human emotion, values, and beliefs.

Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see.

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human experience.

The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.

Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.

The pleasant fact is that the British are not much good at violent crime except in fiction, which is of course as it should be.

If you’ve broken any promises you’ve made to yourself, now is the time to make up for it.

Free trade is very important if we respect equality among nations.

A mistake a lot of girls make is that they work out but don't eat enough. If you're not eating enough, all the work outs are doing, it's not going to show.

One's whole being vibrates like strings brushed by an invisible wind.

A man on a mission is far different from a drone on a deadline.

Be funny whenever possible, even if some people don't get it.

These days, if you happen to be a poet you have to sing your words to get your ideas out.

Don't let anything without a heart beat you.

I saw that it was all over, put away in a box like a doll no longer cared for, the magical intimacy of our childhood together