What do any of us ever truly know?

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

Doubtless these are inconsequential perplexities. Still, inconsequential perplexities have now and again been known to become the fundamental mood of existence, one suspects.

In fact one frequently seemed to gather all sorts of similar information about subjects one had less than profound interest in.

Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover...or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?

Once, I had a dream of fame. Generally, even then, I was lonely.

The morning’s recollection of the emptiness of the day before. Its anticipation of the emptiness of the day to come.

Can Protagonist think of a single film that interests him as much as the three-hundredth best book he ever read?

Is T.S. Eliot the only poet one can think of who could have spent a year on his own in Paris at twenty-three—and managed to have no sexual encounter whatsoever?

I also believe I met William Gaddis once. He did not look Italian.

You will say that I am old and mad, was what Michaelangelo wrote, but I answer that there is no better way of being sane and free from anxiety than by being mad.

This is the basis for the most important critique of microfinance. The poor are not entrepreneurs. The idea that more than a few will turn tiny loans into a viable business is simply unrealistic.

You need to know the truth to be able to praise God

I have one piece of advice for you: sleep your way to the top.

To say I love you is to say that you are not mine, but rather your own.

The resources of heaven are ready and waiting for the people of God who desire to make much of him in this world

Great happiness, and mingled therefor with bitter sorrow. It is not by enthusiasm but by tactics that we defeat a foe.

Man in a word has no nature; what he has... is history.

I think William Shakespeare was the wisest human being I ever heard of. To be perfectly frank, though, that's not saying much.

Actors want to work. Give them characters they want to play, or a story they want to tell, and hopefully the budget will follow.

The surviving intelligent life form on Earth is not going to be carbon-based; it's going to be silicon-based.