I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. If you look really hard at almost anybody, and try to see why they're doing what they're doing, taking a dig at them ceases to be what you want to do even if you hate them.

Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it.

Mine the long night The secret place Where lovers meet In long embrace In purple dark In silvered kiss Forget the world And grasp your bliss

...it is not possible to create the opposite of what one has always known, simply because the opposite is believed to be desired. Human beings need what they already know, even horrors.

A surprising number of people - including many students of literature - will tell you they haven't really lived in a book since they were children.

Harm can come about without will or action. But will and action can avert harm.

I'd like to write the way Matisse paints.