It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

One of the most terrible feelings in the world is knowing that someone else doesn’t like you. Especially when you don’t know what you’ve done to deserve it.

I dislike Allegory – the conscious and intentional allegory – yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.

There’s a personality trait known as agreeableness. Agreeable people are compassionate and polite. And agreeable people get paid less than disagreeable people for the same job. Women are more agreeable than men.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure – the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

I was adored once too.

It’s always wonderful to get to know women, with the mystery and the joy and the depth. If you can make a woman laugh, you’re seeing the most beautiful thing on God’s Earth.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.

I was a chemistry major, but I’m always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I’ve brought scientific thinking to literature. There’s been very little gratitude for this.

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

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It’s the thing that people create.

Women. They are a complete mystery.

If people wonder, yes, Hillary Clinton is my friend. She has been a friend to me and Barack and Malia and Sasha, and Bill and Chelsea have been embracing and supportive from the very day my husband took the oath of office.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn’t intimidated by them.

The second time around, I’ll understand that, as a husband, my wife doesn’t care about my opinions. I just need to tell her the things that will continue to help me stack the brownie points.

Life is relationship, living is relationship. We cannot live if you and I have built a wall around ourselves and just peep over that wall occasionally. Unconsciously, deeply, under the wall, we are related.

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.

I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.

It’s true that I’ve never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.

Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

Study men, not historians.

We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.

You gotta understand: I believe a woman should praise the man, the king. If you holding it down for your woman, I feel like the woman should praise. And the man should praise the queen.

If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

A friend is nothing but a known enemy.

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.

I’ll tell you who I absolutely adore: Ian McEwan.

Disagreement is something normal.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

‚Discworld‘ is taking something that you know is ridiculous and treating it as if it is serious, to see if something interesting happens when you do so.

There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

More people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

Money and women are the most sought after and the least known about of any two things we have.

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City?

There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.

If you want to give up the admiration of thousands of men for the distain of one, go ahead, get married.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

Love always ends differently and it always begins differently – especially with me.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.