We might likewise say that humans are the neurotics of the animal world, in that they are the only animals who must choose to be instead of just instinctively being.

Malicious gossip takes the place of creation in non-creative lives.

What man can imagine he may one day achieve.

The dark has to be contained in the light or the light will be contained in the dark.

Many an author will speak of writing, in his best work, more than he actually knows.

If civilization ever achieves a higher standard of what constitutes normality, it will have been the neurotic who led the way.

Never give away your work. People don’t value what they don’t have to pay for.

imagination is new reality in the process of being created. It represents the part of the existing order that can still grow.

The more specific you are, the more universal you are.

In order to go anywhere it is necessary to be where one is.

The dead hand of research lies heavy on too many novels.

The perfect orchestration of the symphony of life is one of the Creator's greatest and most beautiful miracles.

There is no communication with God without communication with God’s people

The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia's life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.

The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

In our world of sleek flesh and collagen, botox and liposuction, what we most fear is the dissolution of the body-mind, the death of the brain.

Music is a reservoir... of sounds.

The Dancing Girls of Lahore was offered to dozens of British publishers and was turned down by everyone. It is still on offer in the U.K., but I'm not confident there will be any takers.

I have no ambivalence about myself wearing make-up or designer clothes but I have an enormous ambivalence about what the fashion world has done to women.

The whole nostalgia thing, and just sticking with what you always liked and what you know and not taking a chance on something or expanding. I think especially after a certain age.

My first movie. I think I won an Oscar for this.