I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.

I hold we cannot be said to be aware of our minds save under responsibility.

Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise.

The best thing about animals is they don't talk much.

For what human ill does dawn not seem to be alternative?

Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but theremay never be two that love one another equally well.

All excellence is equally difficult.