Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.

How we experience memory sometimes, it’s not linear. We’re not telling the stories to ourselves. We know the story; we’re just seeing it in flashes overlaid.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.

Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

A reader can never tell if it’s a real thimble or an imaginary thimble, because by the time you’re reading it, they’re the same. It’s a thimble. It’s in the book.

I’m not searching for hard news; I’m not a journalist, but I’m interested in pushing to boundaries of where we can do the kind of stories that we want to do. I mean, it’s a big world and CNN has made it a lot bigger and they haven’t flinched.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

It’s a funny old world.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

I can’t think without my glasses.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

It seems that when you have cancer you are a brave battler against the disease, but when you have Alzheimer’s you are an old fart. That’s how people see you. It makes you feel quite alone.

When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I mean, if you didn’t get it or if you didn’t feel like you enjoyed it, sometimes that experience can change.

I always have an optimistic view, no matter what it is.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

I’m 5’11, so when I wear heels, it’s definitely a really good view that I have. I’m, like, 6’2 when I wear heels, so I tend to wear cowboy boots a lot.

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.

Men must know their limitations.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

Most people have no idea what something would sound like if it wasn’t an MP3.

I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it’s a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

If you would judge, understand.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

It’s a lot easier to stay idealistic if you don’t sign two to five next-of-kin letters every day.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

I don’t know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.

To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia – to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it’s their fault.