“Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people.”

Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them.

They are born with a little bit of angelshine about them, and though it wears thin sometimes there is always enough left to lasso your heart.

A girl becomes a wife with her eyes wide open. She knows that those sweetest words.

What is a husband? He is the one who, with a touch, can bring back the starlight and glow of years long ago. At least he hopes he can – don’t disappoint him.

A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.

I take thee to be my wedded husband,’ really mean, ‘I promise thee to cook three meals a day for 60 years; thee will I clean up after; thee will I talk to even when thou art not listening; thee will I worry about, cry over and take all manner of hurts from.

Between the innocence of boyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature called a boy.

A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot.

A boy is a magical creature you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can’t lock him out of your heart.

But when you come home at night with only the shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with two magic words Hi, Dad!

You can get him out of your study, but you can’t get him out of your mind. Might as well give up he is your captor, your jailer, your boss and your master a freckled-faced, pint-sized, cat-chasing bundle of noise.

Boys are found everywhere – on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to.

A boy is truth with dirt on its face, beauty with a cut on its finger, wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.

I think just being together and talking would be nice. But when we grow old, when greed and vanity will be completely gone, when I will be tired of singing can I return to that place too?

Right now I am full of greed and vanity, so I cannot live with you like before. But may be we can meet like this.

It’s nice when people approach you to help.

I like the level of fame that I have. You get nice tables in restaurants sometimes, but fame isn’t something that I find comfortable.

Flying can be such a claustrophobic experience, it’s nice to open that up a bit with music.

[Henry] James is much more complex than Jane Austen. That’s why it’s not so easy to adapt him.

I’m all alone. There has been no man in my life for several months now and although it would be nice to have a boyfriend.

People expect a nice period piece, but that’s not always the case. There’s a deep human mystery in his work.