Art is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar. We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother tongue.

If I can't stay where I am, and I can't, then I will put all that I can into the going.

A character has a distinctive voice - you should be able to hear them in your head and conduct a conversation with them while you're out walking. If the answers surprise you, you know it's the character speaking and not you.

Life gives you enough hard knocks so it's unlikely you'll stay that sure of yourself.

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?

The only selfish life is a timid one.

A homosexual is further away from a woman than a rhinoceros.