To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.

Love cannot be reduced to a catalogue of reasons why, and a catalogue of reasons cannot be put together into love.

I think the adverb is a much-maligned part of speech. Its always accused of being oppressive, even tyrannical, when in fact its so supple and sly.

Never underestimate how extraordinarily difficult it is to understand a situation from another person's point of view.

She is a loner, too bright for the slutty girls and too savage for the bright girls, haunting the edges and corners of the school like a sullen disillusioned ghost

I really wanted to write an adventure story, a murder-mystery that was set during the gold-rush years in New Zealand.

A woman fallen has no future; a man risen has no past.

Remember that anybody who is clever enough to set you free is clever enough to enslave you.

I often feel intellectually frustrated when I'm in a position where I'm not moving forward; when I'm not enquiring about something.

The way that I see astrology is as a repository of thought and psychology. A system we've created as a culture as way to make things mean things.

Solitude is a condition best enjoyed in company.

Being sad with the right people is better than being happy with the wrong ones.

One of my favorite dialogue pieces from Black Creek Burning: “It was a polite, white lie, ” Brie whispered. “I’ll have to remember you think that way, ” Nathan said.

You couldn't not notice the bruise on the side of her face. Or the hickey under her chin.

I could feel the tears streaming down my face—in some kind of frenzied competition with the rain. At first, I tried to brush the tears away, but I finally let them take their course, unabated.

Husbands don't really count ... in the miracle of birth.

Look, the president can discharge all 93 U.S. attorneys for no reason at all, but not for a bad reason.

It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.

Why speculate when you can calculate?

I think confidence is the most appealing quality in any human being or any artist; that's what really attracts us to people.

You have to keep your audience in your mind; if you're writing stuff that you know nobody's going to care about then you should rethink what you're doing!