Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.

Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty.

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.

You understand people better if you look at them-no matter how old or impressive or important they may be-as if they were children. For most men never mature; they simply grow taller.

The purpose of life is not to be happy, the purpose of life is to matter.

Where was it ever promised us that life on this earth can ever be easy, free from conflict and uncertainty, devoid of anguish and wonder and pain? Those who seek the folly of unrelieved 'happiness'-who fear moods, who shun solitude, who do not know the diginity of occasional depression-can find bliss easily enough: in tranquilizing pills, or in senility. The purpose of life is not to be happy.