The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.

We fall in love because we long to escape from ourselves with someone as beautiful, intelligent, and witty as we are ugly, stupid, and dull. But what if such a perfect being should one day turn around and decide they will love us back? We can only be somewhat shocked-how can they be as wonderful as we had hoped when they have the bad taste to approve of someone like us?

Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (often in the gathering darkness of a Sunday evening) that much of who we are, or could be, has gone unexplored.

The most unbearable thing about many successful people is not - as we flatteringly think - how lazy they are, but how hard they work.

The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.

The dream of the news is that it makes us care about other people and situations. But we cannot identify with people to whom we haven't been introduced. Humans will only respond to art, to people who are skilled in making you care.

I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.