“But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.”

There is a law in life: when one door closes to us another one opens.

In other people’s company I felt I was dull, gloomy, unwelcome, at once bored and boring.

‘Therefore’ is a word the poet must not know.

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. It’s their way of falling.

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

Poverty makes a slave out of men. In order to eat he will accept work that gives no pleasure.

You have to let other people be right’ was his answer to their insults. ‘It consoles them for not being anything else.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.

Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it.

The funny thing about love is that it must continually grow or it will diminish.

What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it.

Envying another man’s happiness is madness; you wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it.

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can’t deal with a woman of their own age.

Everybody, no matter how old you are, is around 24, 25 in their heart.

I think we live in an age of increasing mediocrity.

Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. There are no age limits for love.

So Harry Potter came in and it is nice that I have kids of the right age. I took them to London and they walked around the set and met Harry Potter and that is thrilling.

In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.

I got a lot of experience for my age. Some artists might take a line or two from a bunch of songs and snip it together and make something, but everything I say I do.

I am only 33, I’ve got a lot to do. This is the first half of my career. I’m looking forward to the future and I’m proud about the past.