Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Death, I had discovered long ago, was available in varying flavors, and none of them particularly palatable.
When I was about 10 or 11, I realised that people made movies; until then, I had thought they just happened.
on him, under him, with his mouth pressed to hers, he sang to her uncouth songs that moved through her body.
I learned you have to move fast, writing futuristic satire in America: Before you know it, you're a realist!
I just try to write the best story I can, a story I would love to read, and hope that readers feel the same.
Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.
The image-managers encourage the individual to fashion himself into a smooth coin, negotiable in any market.
I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible.
A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience.
The worst thing in the world is a bitter woman. That's one thing about your mother, she's never been bitter.
An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is so private it does not seek applause.
I was raised in the Depression, when there was a great sense of dog-eat-dog and people fighting over scraps.
My generation was maybe the last in which you could set up shop as a writer and hope to make a living at it.
Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like the light, the air. It is the heritage of all.
I think the writer has to be responsible to signs and dreams. If you don't do anything with it, you lose it.
To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.
Sara could commit adultery at one end and weep for her sins at the other, and enjoy both operations at once.
Nothing is more comical than seriousness understood as a virtue that has to precede all important literature
Apparently, the city of Delhi is a 'character' in my novels. I'd argue that it's a ... city... in my novels.
I may not remember my name or what country I live in, but you and that pie is something I will never forget.
As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.
Without women taking an active role in Afghan society, rebuilding Afghanistan is going to be very difficult.
Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.
The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore.
When you have children it completely shifts your focus; they become the most passionate love of your life...
When it becomes really impossible to get away and sleep, then the will to live evaporates of its own accord.
The sadness of the world has different ways of getting to people, but it seems to succeed almost every time.
To be suspicious is not a fault. To be suspicious all the time without coming to a conclusion is the defect.
To buy dinner transmits that you feel time spent in your date's company has been a pleasure and a privilege.
I didn't have a sweet tooth, but I liked butter, and I liked sauces, and I liked wine and curry and cheeses.
The tiny, initial clue ... by allowing us to imagine what we do not know, stimulates a desire for knowledge.
I had come in time to learn that it was a mistake to smile a friendly smile when somebody made a fool of me.
A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.
Married people do stand up so for each other when you say a word, however they may fight between themselves.
In the evenings the art of building gave way to that of music, which is architecture, too, though invisible.
I want find a part of myself that I feel shame about, or that I feel really scared of exposing to the world.
The great truth that is too often forgotten is that it is in the nature of people to do good to one another.
Faith takes a great many forms, suited to a variety of sensibilities, and mine happens to suit me very well.
Lines drawn into his face suggested he had spent many years thinking very hard over very difficult problems.
I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily.
the English don't go in for imagination: imagination is considered to be improper if not downright alarmist.
There is too much doing - too little being! When we begin to get strenuous, life begins to grow intolerable.
I'm afraid the negative things are always the great subjects. Failure is much more interesting than success.
Novelists don't age as quickly as philosophers, who often face professional senility in their late twenties.
You haven't seen untidiness until you've seen a room where gravity has failed twice in different directions.
She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.
This last night we tear into each other, as if to wound, as if to find the key to everything before morning.
He came to this country like a torch on fire and he swallowed air as he walked forward and he gave out light
All paths cause pain, so to chose the safe over the audacious will not give you less pain, only less beauty.
Philosophy fulfills the need to create for ourselves a single and complete concept of the world and of life.