Quotable

There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment.  And yet it eludes us completely.  All the sadness of life lies in that fact.

Who but the insane would ever be at peace?  What person who has enjoyed life could possibly thing one is enough?  Who could live even a day and not feel the sweet ache of regret?

Oh, the things she would say if she could - but it's a minefield of courtesies and manner, this dying business.

He considered it a shame when people couldn't grasp the infinite - a failure of not just imagination but of simple vision.

It is more than their land that you take away from the people, whose native land you take.  It is their past as well; their roots and their identity.

I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape.

To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish.  You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.

Let me tell you.  The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.

The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or a breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil.

And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years.  It was always that way.

The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears.

If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.  And I here make a full-a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last.  The strange and foreign is not interesting-only the deeply personal and familiar.