I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.

My wife has about everything I can think of.

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

Michelle and I don’t want anyone telling us who our family’s doctor should be – and no one should decide that for you either. Under our proposals, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your current insurance, you keep that insurance. Period, end of story.

I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.

Maria is the best reason to come home.

To be social is to be forgiving.

My sisters are stronger and my brother’s bigger than me.

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.

It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended-and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.

There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.

The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.

I never write about the road. I never write about hotels or anything like that.

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

When the people we love stop paying attention, trust begins to slip away and hurt starts seeping in.

George Orwell is half journalist, half fiction writer. I’m 100 percent fiction writer… I don’t want to write messages. I want to write good stories. I think of myself as a political person, but I don’t state my political messages to anybody.

My kids are the funniest two human beings there are.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

I have a very good family. I’m very fortunate to have a very good family. I believe very strongly in the family. It’s one of the things we have in our platform, is to talk about it.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that’s all I ever was associated with.

When we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things.

That summer after the draft was probably the most fun I’ve ever had, because all I had to do every day was wake up and go work out for four or five hours. I got to play some golf, which I love to do, too, and then got to hang out with my family.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

I don’t care much for equations myself. This is partly because it is difficult for me to write them down, but mainly because I don’t have an intuitive feeling for equations.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

The actual business of writing dialogue is not thought of as a craft.

Men’s vows are women’s traitors!

I’ve never been a hands-on dad. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but you can’t run a restaurant and be home for tea at 4:30 and bath and change nappies.

Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t they’d be married too.

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

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

My mother says I was writing before I was crawling. I wrote in the dirt with a twig.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

We are all alike, on the inside.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

When I was growing up, my family was so poor we couldn’t afford to pay attention.

I’m entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they’re thinking and who they are and who’s hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what’s the story, really?

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

In my house I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.

There really is no difference between the bully and the victim.

‚The New Yorker‘ was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I’d more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions – not much.