Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.

Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.