There's something stubborn about families, unhappy ones in particular: they outlive themselves, and then they live on.

Naturally, our own irrational demands strike us as having the force of needs, while other people's needs strike us as capricious indulgences.

My mother is the source of my unease in the world and thus the only person who can make me feel at home in the world.

Much as I try to disguise myself, there is never a time when I'm not aware of being overweight.

And the game of dominoes is much like life: You gotta play the bones you’ve pulled. It don’t matter if you got seven doubles in your damn hand.

Perhaps she would learn in time to permit both her daughter and her gods to govern their own affairs.

You only have one life.Make sure that yours isone you are happyto be living.

If you have competence, you know the edge. It wouldnt be a competence if you didnt know where the boundaries lie. Asking whether youve passed the boundary is a question that almost answers itself.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

We all get a little tired of being ourselves sometimes. The answer is to reinvent yourself, but how do you do that and what is the cost?

You can mix in certain sensitivities as a filmmaker.

The effect of the indulgence of human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.

Our dependence upon God ought to be so entire and absolute that we should never think it necessary, in any kind of distress, to have recourse to human consolations.

A man long accustomed to admire his wife in general, seldom pauses to admire her in a particular gown or attitude, unless his attention is directed to her by the appreciative gaze of another man.