There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.

The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait.

To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

The first divorce in the world may have been a tragedy, but the hundred-millionth is not necessarily one.

A bookcase is as good as a view, as much of a panorama as the sight of a city or a river. There are dawns and sunsets in books - storms and zephyrs.

There are few things more subtly distressing than an inappropriate gift from someone close to you.

The tension between 'yes' and no', between 'I can' and 'I cannot,' makes us feel that, in so many instances, human life is an interminable debate with one's self.

She needed this. For the comfort, for the love, for all the glorious things she did not deserve and yet could not stop herself from wanting.

If you go to heaven without being naturally qualified for it you will not enjoy it there.

Donald Trump has said that his 15 percent rate would apply to all businesses. And if that's the case, billionaire real estate magnets will get a very big tax cut.

The most highly prized curve of all is that of the bosom.

Fish don't know much about water, and people didn't know much about air.

When you bring an idea that has no merit to me, and you ask me to comment on it, I'm going to tell you it has no merit.

Don't invest in anything that you don't understand. Do your research first.

Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?

A lot of celebrities golf because they want to be away. For them it's a chance to get away and be peaceful. For me it's peaceful to ride [cycling].

I just wanted to be in show business. I didn't care if I was going to be an actor or a magician or what. Comedy was a point of the least resistance, really. And on the simplest level, I loved comedy.