I think someday you're going to be a great writer," he said. "But" he added maliciously, "first you'll have to suffer a bit. I mean really suffer, because you don't know what the word means yet. You only think you've suffered. You've got to fall in love first.

The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it.

There is the happiness which comes from creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.

The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens.

Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.

As long as that spark of passion is missing there is no human significance in the performance.

The learning we received only tended to obscure our vision. From the day we went to school we learned nothing; on the contrary, we were made obtuse, we were wrapped in a fog of words and abstractions.