It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.

Unnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice.

It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one is producing a complete disaster.

There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.

Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.

.. if you asked most people whether they believed in love or not, they’d probably say they didn’t. Yet that’s not necessarily what they truly think. It’s just the way they defend themselves against what they want. They believe in it, but pretend they don’t until they’re allowed to. Most people would throw away all their cynicism if they could. The majority just never gets the chance.

We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own underwrite our joy nor condemn us to misery.