There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

There is a reason life has put you in the current circumstances, Life will always test you, it will always try to make you stronger.Life only wants you to be better then you were yesterday.

The spirit of Christmas exists in harmonious carols like those sung by angels on the day of Christ’s birth.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear

Pull down the shades on the windows of your soul, And gaze into your mind and watch the wisdom unfold.

I've been writing a lot of country music again. I've written some bluegrass material. I'm having a good time doing that.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.

I'm 84 years old. Don't let the altar-boy face fool you.

I hate the way the English have of not being serious about being serious, I really hate it.

It is a wry commentary on the value-system in the United States that one speaks there of "teacher training" and "driver education."

When we are young we believe to be adults; when we are adults we believe to be young.