There is something frank and joyous and young in the open face of the country. It gives itself ungrudgingly to the moods of the season, holding nothing back.

Success is less interesting than struggle. There is great pleasure in the effort.

Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them.

Too much detail is apt, like any other form of extravagance, to become slightly vulgar.

Alexandra sighed. "I have a feeling that if you go away, you will not come back. Something will happen to one of us, or to both. People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find. What I have is yours if you care enough about me to take it.

Today I stood taller from walking among the trees.

Our tree became the talking tree of the fairy tale; legends and stories nestled like birds in its branches.