A concern with 'public morality' is - if not the last refuge of a scoundrel - the first foray of the fascist.

Conflict is the soul of literature.

You reach a point in life where you realize that you might as well do what you need to do, because your being loved or not being loved is really a function of the people you encounter and not of yourself. That is an immensely liberating insight.

The hardest part is believing in yourself at the notebook stage. It is like believing in dreams in the morning.

The most important education you get is your own - the one you learn in solitude.

Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.

each of us only feels the torn lining of his own coat and sees the wholeness of the other person's.