“Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.”

Assumptions are dangerous things.

But surely for everything you love you have to pay some price.

To every problem, there is a most simple solution.

Until one looks back on one’s own past one fails to realise what an extraordinary view of the world a child has.

The simplest explanation is always the most likely.

Fiction is founded on truth unless things did happen, people couldn’t think of them.

There are questions that you don’t ask because you’re afraid of the answers to them.

I learned that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back – that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one way street, isn’t it?

Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time thewish to kill-though not the will to kill.

One must accept the fact that we have only one companion in this world, a companion who accompanies us from the cradle to the grave – our own self. Get on good terms with that companion – learn to live with yourself.

Very few of us are what we seem.

Writing is a great comfort to people like me, who are unsure of themselves and have trouble expressing themselves properly.

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming… suddenly you find – at the age of 50, say – that a whole new life has opened before you.

There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger.

Books are a habit-forming drug.

If you’ve had a happy childhood, nobody can take that away from you.

My advice to anyone with a dream is to never stop pursuing it.

Don’t take your toys inside just because it’s raining.

I wouldn’t give myself any advice, because advice is kinda bullshit. Take a deep breath and don’t take any of it too seriously.

Never have more children than you have car windows.

As my Sicilian grandfather used to say, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar, right?

Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.

Don’t make decisions too far in advance, particularly ones you’re not even conscious you’re making.

As with narrow-necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring out.