...that horrible moment of suspense when the artist shows one of his creations to strange eyes for the first time.

Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre. [Vincent Van Gogh]

The best romance is inside marriage; the finest love stories come after the wedding, not before.

There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.

I do not know a better cure for mental illness than a book.

Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.

Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.

Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink.

No artist is normal. Who happen to be normal cannot be an artist.

A man who has not suffered has nothing to tell with his paintings.

One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.

I am crying over the loss of something I never had. How ridiculous. Mourning something that never was – my dashed hopes, dashed dreams, and my soured expectations.

I'm sixty-five but if there were fifteen months in every year I'd only be forty-eight.

God's silences are His answers. If we only take as answers those that are visible to our senses we are in a very elementary condition of grace.

I grew up with Frank Sinatra and it has taken me a long time to get to a place where I really enjoy [U2's] music.

I have a lot of guitar heroes I guess, some of them are female and some of them are male. Robert Fripp is one of them, and Marc Ribot, that's another guitar hero.

Embrace the beautiful mess that you are.

The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that they are governed at all.

Those who walk with God always reach their destination.

And tell him to paint me a sign, with-no suicides permitted here, and no smloing in the parlor; might as well kill both birds at once.

Education belongs pre-eminently to the church ... neutral or lay schools from which religion is excluded are contrary to the fundamental principles of education.