Don't live in a way that makes you feel dead.

It's got two aspects. The bit that involves the public life I could not really tolerate and cannot really tolerate. I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that.

Fate is a quantity very much like TV: an unstoppable narrative, written, produced and directed by somebody else.

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it.

I don't ask myself what did I live for, said Carlene strongly. That is a man's question. I ask whom did I live for.

I lost many literary battles the day I read 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I had to concede that occasionally aphorisms have their power. I had to give up the idea that Keats had a monopoly on the lyrical.

For ridding oneself of faith is like boiling seawater to retrieve the salt--something is gained but something is lost.