There’s nothing cruel about a vampire or a parasite, she said.

Every character in a story, I thought when I had folded up the phone, has both a purpose and a secret purpose.

And you’re disappointed in the story. I know you wanted a love story.

Why do smart people exist, if not to figure out convoluted problems?

I was always a bit reluctant with anything like fame and the limelight and it didn't sit very well with me, although I love singing and writing.

A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government.

A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game.

It is much easier to meet with error than to find truth; error is on the surface, and can be more easily met with; truth is hid in great depths, the way to seek does not appear to all the world.

We glorify those who left their names in history books at the expense of those contributors about whom our books are silent. We humans are not just a superficial race - we are a very unfair one.

I found at this point that effective acting wasn't what I wanted to do, that I didn't want to make effects, that I wanted, as it were, to leave an impression of a particular kind of human being.

Ruthless striving, overcomes everything.

It was considered very bad form to wish authors on their birthdays 'many happy returns.

I didn't ask my mother to buy me a trumpet or a violin, I started right on the water hose.