No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Everything has changed, and nothing has changed more than the world of fashion.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

When you pick up a book, everyone knows it’s imaginary. You don’t have to pretend it’s not a book. We don’t have to pretend that people don’t write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn’t the only way to do it. Once you’re writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all.

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

Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

I’ll tell you one thing, since I’m married, single people look absolutely ridiculous to me.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

‚Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

If you see everything from the point of view of women being victims in some way, you don’t see the wood for the trees. It is better to be a person than a woman.

Keep in mind that no matter how perfectly you get your life in order, you will never be rid of all your problems. Problems are a way of life, always have been, always will be. But how you elect to view those problems is all up to you.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we’re children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they’re scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it’s pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I wish every American had an opportunity to sit down, to go to a base, to meet with families, to meet with service members, to sit down with our veterans – because we would think differently about our challenges as individuals.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

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.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I’ve seen on some of the songs that I’ve written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

For 25 years countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

You can’t have a relationship with a device whose limits are unknown to you, because without limits, it keeps becoming something else.

If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.

Death means change our clothes. Clothes become old, then time to come change. So this body become old, and then time come, take young body.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

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

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.