We feel something, and reach out for the nearest phrase or hum with which to communicate, but which fails to do justice to what has induced us to do so....We stay on the outside of our impressions, as if staring at them through a frosted window, superficially related to them, yet estranged from whatever has eluded casual definition.

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

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel.

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

I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.

According to one influential wing of modern secular society there are few more disreputable fates than to end up being 'like everyone else' for 'everyone else' is a category that comprises the mediocre and the conformist, the boring and the suburban. The goal of all right-thinking people should be to mark themselves off from the crowd and 'stand out' in whatever way their talents allow.

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.