Harsh reality is always better than false hope.

I don't think I'm an unkind person, I don't think my books are unkind, and I don't think my readers are unkind.

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

If we don't respect the past, we'll find it harder to build a future.

The moment I was introduced to my wife, Emma, at a party I thought, here she is - and 20 minutes later I told her she ought to marry me. She thought I was as mad as a rat. She wouldn't even give me her telephone number - and she wrote in her diary: "A funny little man asked me to marry him."

The business of life is learning that you can't lay down the terms.

Sometimes it is quite surprising, the emotional intensity of it. I was in NY one day, in Barnes and Noble, and I could see this woman following me around and after a bit I stopped and said 'Hello' and she just looked at me and said: “PLEASE LET EDITH BE HAPPY!”