You can't imagine how hard I am on myself. Nothing pummels me like my own doubts, the feeling of how far I still have to go.

...we take comfort in the symmetries we find in life because they suggest a design where there is none.

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.

there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone.

What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.

She struggled with her sadness, but tried to conceal it, to divide it into smaller and smaller parts and scatter these in places she thought no one would find them.

To hike out alone in the desert; to sleep on the valley floor on a night with no moon, in the pitch black, just listening to the boom of silence: you can't imagine what that's like.

That's what I do. Watch movies and read. Sometimes I even pretend to write, but I'm not fooling anyone. Oh, and I go to the mailbox.

When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything?

I've reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.

So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.

Fear is just a misunderstanding of your immortality.

Sometimes I think too much fuss is made about marriage. Century after century of carnal embracement and we're still no nearer to understanding one another.

From Paris we took the Orient Express to Vienna. I must say I was terribly disappointed; nobody was murdered on the train.

Some marriages break up, and some do not, and in our world you can usually explain the former better than the latter.

Hannibal rode elephants into cartilage

It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.

One does not know where love will take you.

Reactive people... are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

A wife, domestic, good, and pure, Like snail, should keep within her door; But not, like snail, with silver track, Place all her wealth upon her back.

The goal of physiological research is functional nature.