We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.

Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.

Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.

If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful.

In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.

Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own - but that we could never have described on our own.

The finest proof of our loyalty toward one another was our monstrous disloyalties towards everyone else.