The spontaneity of slaps is sincerity, whereas the ceremonial of caresses is largely convention.

Who cares about great marks left behind? We have one life... just one. Our life. We have nothing else.

There is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely.

At any given moment, I open my eyes and exist.

To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair, and that there will be wonderful surprises.

Everyone has, inside himself ... what shall I call it? A piece of good news! Everyone is ... a very great, very important character.

If we have anything kind to say, any tender sentiment to express, we feel a sense of shame.

Thought itself needs words. It runs on them like a long wire. And if it loses the habit of words, little by little it becomes shapeless, somber.

All of us are mad. If it weren't for the fact that every one of us is slightly abnormal, there wouldn't be any point in giving each person a separate name.

There is no forgiveness in nature.

Nature is honest, we aren't; we embalm our dead.

Is anyone who's supposed to be dead actually dead?

The heart smiles when the soul shines.

I don't think there are any true heroes. Just people who ignore their survival instincts long enough to do something incredibly foolhardy.

Every man has a right to be equal with every other man.

I am just like everybody else...because there is nobody like me in the whole world.

I had to make some drastic choices to avoid losing myself.

We are born dead, and we are becoming more and more contented with our condition. We are acquiring the taste for it.

This bird sees the white man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge... It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature.

I thought about ["Summer Sisters" ] so often as I was writing about these female characters who love each other and hated each other and were sort of in love with each other.

I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole.