You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition.

The goal is the same: life itself; and the price is the same; life itself.

The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes.

The artist's task is not to alter the world as the eye sees it into a world of aesthetic reality, but to perceive the aesthetic reality within the actual reality. (On photographs by Helen Levitt)

Isn’t every human being both a scientist and an artist; and in writing of human experience, isn’t there a good deal to be said for recognizing that fact and for using both methods?

Some people get where they hope to in this world. Most of us don't.

You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without any warning or any regard for justice.

I'm very anxious not to fall into archaism or 'literary' diction. I want my vocabulary to have a very large range, but the words must be alive.

A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children.

The camera seems to me, next to unassisted and weaponless consciousness, the central instrument of our time.

Just spunk won't be enough; you've got to have gumption.

The heart is a rare, unique treasure because it is strong and vulnerable at the same time. It is strong in its persistence to sustain life, yet it is vulnerable to both emotional and physical wounds.

I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.

Afterwards, I will have to tie the trees to bamboo poles so the wind will not determine their shape. A tree cannot be given form by the vagaries of the wind.

I hope that Angela Merkel can become the chancellor of the rebuilding of Europe, in close cooperation with the role that I will play in the process.

One of the best players I've ever seen in my life! Spectacular on training!! Playing with him was a joy!

She’ll have no lover, for I don’t want her and she’ll see no other.

I never lost a tennis match, I just ran out of time

The Imperial Service could win a war without coffee, but would prefer not to have to.

Usually people think that it is the musicians who create the music, but in fact it is music who creates the musicians.