I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.

I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer – it just happened.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

Love is an interesting thing.

I loved being Maleficent. I was quite sad to put my staff down and put my horns away because somehow, she just lives in a different world.

I have good days and bad days.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

If you want to have a life that is worth living, a life that expresses your deepest feelings and emotions and cares and dreams, you have to fight for it.

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you’re doomed; you’re finished.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

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

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

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

Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart, don’t know how to laugh either.

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.

Love is the one wild card.

Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

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

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

Only the really plain people know about love – the very fascinating ones try so hard to create an impression that they soon exhaust their talents.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

I put out one album one week, and I’m already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

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

It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.

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.

Kissing someone is pretty intimate, actually very intimate, and your heart always kind of skips a beat before you do that.

Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?

Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it’s a good indication of what you’re made of.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

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.