For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.

‚Royal Beatings‘ was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to ‚The New Yorker‘ in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines in Canada. ‚The New Yorker‘ sent me nice notes, though – penciled, informal messages. They never signed them. They weren’t terribly encouraging.

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

I like learning more about people; I like to talk to people.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

I can unload my opinion on anybody at anytime.

On TV the people can see it. On radio you’ve got to create it.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‚tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.

Many people tell me that they don ‚t know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That’s good.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

We live in a day that nobody’s lived in before: where you can touch more people. The message I’ll speak tonight and the message that I speak at home, people in India will hear. It’s just an amazing day.

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

Speak low, if you speak love.

I like writing. I get cranky when I can’t. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.

Isn’t it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

I think, a lot of times when you meet someone, you feel like you need to appear like you’re not interested in them so that they’ll be more interested in you. But what happens when you start showing him that you actually like him? What’s he gonna do then? Play the tape forward; how do you keep a guy like that? I don’t want to sign up for that.

All men hate the nagging.

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

I’m a people pleaser. I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse.

At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn’t matter. You said, ‚That’s an American‘ because there’s a readiness to smile and to talk to people.

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

‚No comment‘ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

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.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it’s done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

We think when God speaks to us, there’s going to be a boom out of Heaven or we’re going to get some chill bumps, but I really believe God’s talking to us all the time. He’s talking to us right in here. I call it our heart, our conscience, but it’s the Holy Spirit talking to us.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I’d written, I don’t want to leave that behind.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

‚For Whom the Bell Tolls‘ was a problem which I carried on each day. I knew what was going to happen in principle. But I invented what happened each day I wrote.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

Extremely religious, legalistic people have a criticism or judgment about everyone and everything. They just have a way of bringing people down with what they say.