There must always be some pretentiousness about literature, or else no one would take its pains or endure its disappointments.

It is not love, but lack of love which is blind.

Time is the nervous system of narration, whether factual or fictive. If it gets confused some of the minutiae of human nature are certain not to work, not to glow, not to strike home.

New York City is a great apartment hotel in which everyone lives and no one is at home.

Life goes on and on after one's luck has run out. Youthfulness persists, alas, long after one has ceased to be young.

People as a rule do mean much more than they understand.

But let us laugh carelessly like other men. Let us be timid even among fools. Let us knot silence around our throats. For they would surely kill us.

I love you the way a knife loves a heart, the way a bomb loves a crowd, the way your mother warned you about, essentially.

We spend so long trying to be what other people want, that when we look in the mirror, we see a stranger.

Let us have peace.

Stretch out your hand and receive the world's wide gift of joy, appreciation and beauty.

If you don't read, I don't know how to communicate with you...I can never express who I am in my own words as powerfully as my books can.

Alexander knew that before he had light instead of darkness, he had to deserve light instead of darkness.

Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not.

I don't usually experience that because there are few people who intimidate me, but Woody was one of them.

It is wrong to condemn people for doing a thing and then offer no alternative but failure. A person could get mad about that.

Don't impose yourself until you really know the work throroughly.