It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

I listen to my old records and I think, ‚How did I ever get on the radio?‘

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

I think I am smart unless I am really, really in love, and then I am ridiculously stupid.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

For me, education was power.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.

I don’t think I am evangelical in my work.

Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

You are the universe, you aren’t in the universe.

Fear makes us feel our humanity.

We feel and know that we are eternal.

I don’t write so much now. I’m getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.

I’m not going to stop having problems.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‚Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.‘

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

For me, time is the greatest mystery of all. The fact is that we’re dreaming all the time. That’s what really gets me. We have a fathomless lake of unconsciousness just beneath our skulls.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

I’m quite a chauvinistic person.

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

I was raised to be independent.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

They would not find me changed from him they knew – only more sure of all I thought was true.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

I’ve learned never to say never.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Vanity is but the surface.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

Control your own destiny! Control your own destiny!

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.

I’m actually a very honest person, and sometimes I end up like, ‚Man, I said too much.‘ It’s hard for me not to tell the truth when you ask me.

It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.