All life worth living is difficult, nobody promised us happiness; it is not a commodity you have earned, or shall ever earn. It is a by-product of brave living, and it never comes in the form we expect, or at the season we hoped for, or as the result of our planning for it.

There seems to be a kind of order in the universe…in the movement of the stars and the turning of the Earth and the changing of the seasons. But human life is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own right and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own.

Writing does not exclude the full life; it demands it.

There is no such thing as an exact synonym and no such thing as an unmixed motive.

First impressions are often signals from the deep that we should credit oftener than we do.

Death always leaves one singer to mourn.

I want to go and see the world. I want to know the world like the palm of my hand.