“Put your backbone where your wishbone is.”

God save us from people who mean well.

I don’t pick and choose subjects or settings; they pick and choose me.

To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away.

The past is the past, and he can’t make amends, only hope that the gain will outlast the damage.

I spent many years of my life as an economist and demographer. I was finally distracted by writing my novels and poetry. I’m enormously happy that was the case. I feel that with writing I have found my metier.

In life’s brief game to be a winner A man must have; oh yes, above All else, of course, someone to love.

I’m not sure anyone can understand a whole life, even their own.

Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person’s power. Be just to yourself.

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.

I think it’s possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

The thing about inspiration is that it takes your mind off everything else.

Man without life companion is either god or beast.

I don’t think anyone should be banned. If you don’t like a book, set it aside.

Every object strives for its proper place. A book seeks to be near its truest admirer. Just as this helpless moth seeks to be near the candle that infatuates him.

I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I’m not. I’m just obsessed with my work.

We all dream about love, want to be in love, and have been hurt by love.

You’re not going to see your dreams come true if you don’t put wings, legs, arms, hands, and feet on ’em.

My dream has become a reality now, and it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.

I dream in my dreams all the dreams of the other dreamers. And I become the other dreamers.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.

When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.