“The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.”

The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies.

Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgot.

What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.

In a perfect world, you could fuck people without giving them a piece of your heart. And every glittering kiss and every touch of flesh is another shard of heart you’ll never see again.

You can’t trust other people. If it’s important, you have to do it yourself.

Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.

I am selfish, private, and easily bored. Will this be a problem?

It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.

You get what anybody gets – you get a lifetime.

Black as night, sweet as sin.

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.

Because,’ she said, ‘when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.

There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.

It’s not hard to own something. Or everything. You just have to know that it’s yours, and then be willing to let it go.

We often confuse what we wish for with what is.

The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.

The virtue of obedience makes the will supple… It inspires the courage with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.

Raise yourself from where you are. Have courage and rise high.

Remember that the good angels do what they can to preserve men from sin and obtain God’s honor. But they do not lose courage when men fail.

Why having been endowed with the courageous heart of a lion, do we live as mice?

It is courage that vanquishes in war, and not good weapons.

You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.

No tactic will work until you have the guts to DO the work!