“Happy is the soul that has a friend. Happier is the soul that trusts in the truth of the heart of a friend. Happiest is the soul that knows the solemnity of friendship and honours its laws.”

“To be happy, you have to risk being unhappy.”

“Like love, like talent, like any other virtue, like anything else in this life, happiness needs to be nurtured - this is the truth of the whole matter.”

“The face of a truly happy man seldom lacks smiles.”

“Always be happy, you never know how happy you can make another by just being happy.”

“Happiness springs up from within. Do not seek it without.”

“People don't always need a name.”

“I stole the very shiniest words and hoarded them all up until they made something worth having.”

“Sometimes a name seems our most arbitrary possession,and sometimes it seems like the grain in a rocklike a sculptor's hunk of Italian marble: Whack itand you might get either your first glimpse of ...”

“I am grateful for the white sheet - all my stories are his.”

“In an age of infinite digital documentation, paper was the last safe place for secrets.”

“History shows how feeble are barriers of paper.”

“Power in society is achieved through control of the purse, pen, and politics.”

“You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.”

“It's an imaginative thing we do; it's about immersing oneself in one's imagination. If you're a novelist, you do it with pen and paper. We do it with our bodies.”