“I realised long ago that skirts are hopeless. Anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try one. Try a skirt.’”

Life is very hard, isn’t it? It does kill you, after all.

Never complain. Never explain.

To live creatively free, do what you know how to do now, then ‘act as if’ you know how to do the rest.

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior.

Wouldn’t it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?

If you need a helping hand, you can find one at the end of your arm.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

What the hell-you might be right, you might be wrong but don’t just avoid.

I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to, and I’ve made enough money to support myself, and ain’t afraid of being alone

Time is the stuff of which life is made.

The time to make up your mind about people is never.

As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.

Listen to the song of life.

I would have been a terrible mother because I’m basically a very selfish human being. Not that that has stopped most people going off and having children.

I have no romantic feelings about age. Either you are interesting at any age or you are not. There is nothing particularly interesting about being old – or being young, for that matter.

That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.

Give me silence, water, hope. Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.

One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.

Take it upon yourself where you live to make people around you joyful and full of hope.

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.