The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.

Green leaves on a dead tree is our epitaph-green leaves, dear reader, on a dead tree.

There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.

We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.

While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

Suddenly, it seems obvious to me: Only fantasy books can make sense of the skewed reality in which I live.

At home, they'd clipped my wings and then caged me so I couldn't fall. Here, they bandaged one another's broken wings, helped each other fly.

The American people ought to know that it is not them, but their government's policies, that are so hated.

Love your children-and let them know you love them. Children who experience love find it far easier to believe God loves them.

I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction.

There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.

What can she possibly teach you, twenty seven names for tears?

I gave guitar lessons. I tried to join bands. My mom always said it was obvious that nothing was going to stop me.

If you're turned away from one road, there's always another--filled with risk but also adventure. Roads less taken are always the most rewarding ones.

I do not believe that a counterterrorism strategy all by itself, without a sufficient level of counterinsurgency, will work.