Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

The sunset glow of self-possession.

There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.

The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.

Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth.

Intelligent people make many mistakes because they cannot believe the world is really as foolish as it is.

Society is divided into two classes, the shearers and the shorn.

Always remember .... The people who usually hide their feelings care the most.

He who would make serious use of his life must always act as though he had a long time to live and schedule his time as though he were about to die.

I'd like to think that if you find your audience there are still opportunities there to go and tell an original story.

I don't think that just because a lot of my music has a quieter aesthetic; [it] excludes me from achieving that in a live setting, from being dangerous or something.

I had always said to myself that forty was the cut off point of my apprenticeship which may for some people sound like a very long one, but the novel as art is a middle-aged art.

Life is the risk we cannot refuse.

We all become what we pretend to be.

Culture outperforms strategy every time; and culture with strategy is unbeatable.

I guess you could say there are two Slashes. There's the crazy, rock-and-roll Slash, he's wild. And then there's the real Slash- he collects miniature soaps and treats his hookers real nice.

Talents of the novelist: ... observation of character, analysis of emotion, people's feelings, personal relations.