The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.

Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.

No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her, but many a woman hate a man for being a friend to her.

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.

Fiction is not necessarily about what you know, it’s about how you feel. That is the truth about fiction, and the other truth is that all science is a tool, and we use our tools not to actualise what we know, but to implement how we feel.

I went through every emotion with tryna pursue what I’m doing, you know what I mean? And I think what’s gon‘ separate whoever’s gon go for something, that you ain’t gon‘ quit.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.

God doesn’t dwell in the wooden, stony or earthen idols. His abode is in our feelings, our thoughts.

You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.

Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

There’s nothing better than having a baby. I’ve always loved children. I used to work summers at the YMCA and be in charge of, like, 30 preschool kids. I knew that when I had a child, I’d be overwhelmed, and it’s true… I can’t tell you how much my attitude has changed since we’ve got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world.

Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.

I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

When we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. Then, when there’s a period of waiting or we hit a plateau, we find out how committed we really are and whether we’re going to see things through to the finish or quit.

And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

You have to understand that people that are hurting are going to criticize.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

When you lose a person you love so much, surviving the loss is difficult.

Whatever I’m feeling, whatever I’m going through, whatever mood I’m in… If I’m feeling like dancing or clubbing, then it will be reflected in the music. If I’m feeling dark and vulnerable, then it will reflect in the music, too.

It’s with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

If you want to make someone feel emotion, you have to make them let go. Listening to something is an act of surrender.

Since I was 16, I’ve felt a black cloud hangs over me.

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

In Germany, they all thought I was a bit mental, very emotional.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.

I left Mainz after 18 years and thought, ‚Next time, I will work with a little less of my heart.‘ I said that because we all cried for a week. The city gave us a goodbye party, and it lasted a week.

William Maxwell’s my favorite North American writer, I think. And an Irish writer who used to write for ‚The New Yorker‘ called Maeve Brennan, and Mary Lavin, another Irish writer. There were a lot of writers that I found in ‚The New Yorker‘ in the Fifties who wrote about the same type of material I did – about emotions and places.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.

Be extra careful in the work environment with those who like to maintain their position through charm and being political, rather than getting things done. They are very prone to envying and hating those who work hard and get results. They will slander and sabotage you without any warning.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

Bitterness is cancer – it eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure.

Everyone has been in love, at some point or another.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

Seeing Pax get extra-nervous about which shirt he is going to wear when he meets Aung San Suu Kyi, I get very moved. He rightfully doesn’t get nervous going to a movie premiere; he gets nervous going to meet her.

Falling in love and having a relationship are two different things.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

Sometimes you can’t prioritise family and you feel guilty.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

The emotions in a song – the anger, aggression – have got to be legitimate.

Football is a sad game.

The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side… It has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological health.

People can cry much easier than they can change.

When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I’m very happy to do that.

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.