Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
What makes a story is how well it manages to connect with the reader, the visceral effect it has.
Perhaps it's because I appreciate all I have so much that I don't worry about what I haven't got.
As soon as man applies his intelligence to any object at all, he unfailingly destroys the object.
The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry.
It was like hiking into a Hemingway story; everything was sepia-toned and bristling with subtext.
The Good and Great must ever shun That reckless and abandoned one Who stoops to perpetrate a pun.
Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.
What does it matter where my body happens to be?' he said. 'My mind goes on working all the same.
Somehow difficulties are easier to endure when you know your dream is waiting for you at the end.
Life is made up of three kinds of people -- those who live it, those afraid to, those in between.
I got well by talking. Death could not get a word in edgewise, grew discouraged, and traveled on.
I knew each person's delusion, the places their records had scratched, where the sounds repeated.
Being the writer is merely control freak level two. You've got to get to control freak level one.
I've often thought that my lack of intimacy with those around me is the fault of those around me.
Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen.
You're a quiet, beautiful woman in a loud, ugly place. An orchid among weeds. You define obvious.
...for me there is too little of life to spend most of it forcing myself into detachment from it.
old age is more bearable if it can be helped by an early acceptance of being loved and of loving.
I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually.
Alcohol was for people who basically wished to be dead but lacked the courage to kill themselves.
The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.
The thing that must be preserved in all situations whatever is the reputation of one's character.
Only Christ can free us from the prison of legalism, and then only if we are willing to be freed.
He left Chainsaw behind, much to her irritation. Ronan didn't want her to learn any bad language.
Ronan didn't need physics. He could intimidate even a piece of plywood into doing what he wanted.
Being the Children's Laureate has been educational, sometimes hectic, but most of all, great fun.
If you go around looking for accidents, asking for them, they can't be called accidents any more.
A child's own story is a dream, but a good story is a dream that is true for more than one child.
Come when you're called; And do as you're bid; Shut the door after you; And you'll never be chid.
We tend to dismiss things we don't particularly like, or that we find disturbing, as aberrations.
The only recreation there allowed, however, is that of the mind, and of this there is but little.
Enthusiasm does not always speak for those who arouse it, but always for those who experience it.
Exceptions are not always the proof of the old rule; they can also be the harbinger of a new one.
The mediocre always feel as if they're fighting for their lives when confronted by the excellent.
The sympathy of most people consists of a mixture of good-humour, curiosity, and self-importance.
None are so eager to gain new experience as those who don't know how to make use of the old ones.
Hollywood gave us far more Muslim terrorists in the Eighties and Nineties than it has since 9/11.
I s'pose, I can't have it all my own way, can I? You can't drown in a person unless they let you.
I was married for 30 years. Isn't that enough? I've had my share of dirty underwear on the floor.
Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.
Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.
Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.
There is no robbery so terrible as the robbery committed by those who think they are doing right.
my family, although it keeps its hair, turns gray early - a business asset but a social handicap.
The stage on which we play our little dramas of life and love has for most of us but one setting.
I suppose that we are only young, Chris, so long as we can forget. After that we merely remember!
most people lose the ability to see silver linings or even though they are always there above us.
People should be nice to you, Leonard. You're a human being. You should expect people to be nice.
Keep thinking. You can hear our brains rattling around inside us, like the littler Russian dolls.