Every work of art is aggressive, Isabella. And every artist's life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one's limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.

We all give up great expectations along the way.

Making money isn't hard in itself... What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to.

A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.

[H]e lay awake, dreading the dawn when he would have to say good-bye to the small universe he had built for himself over the years.

I wandered off, walking through streets that seemed emptier than ever, thinking that if I didn't stop, if I kept on walking, I wouldn't notice that the world I thought I knew was no longer there.

There are two things in life you cannot choose. The first is your enemies; the second your family. Sometimes the difference between them is hard to see, but in the end time will show you that the cards you have been dealt could always have been worse.