He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others' mediocrity - suggesting that a certain type of intelligence may be at heart nothing more or less than a superior capacity for dissatisfaction.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships.

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.

The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.