“Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”

“People believe a little too easily that the function of the sun is to help the cabbages along.”

“...and the country is like a great unfolded mantle with a green velvet cape bordered with a fringe of silver.”

“Its hard to communicate anything exactly and thats why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.”

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.”

“I am a person before I am anything else. I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist...I am a person who does those things.”

“The point, I decided, wasn't to have the autobiography or even the memories. The point was who I became when I wrote.”

“The willingness to reach inside every part of yourself opens the door to total understanding. You place your entire identity on the line, not just an isolated part. This may sound daunting, but act...”

“Vanity is becoming a nuisance, I can see why women give it up, eventually. But I'm not ready for that yet.”

“Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.Francois de La Rochefoucauld”

“Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.”