Life - Quotes

Life is all about balance. You don’t always need to be getting stuff done. Sometimes it’s perfectly okay, and absolutely necessary, to shut down, kick back, and do nothing. - Lori Deschene

The one who plant trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life. - Rabindranath Tagore

Life is real, life should be earnest. To be enjoyed, we must have an aim, an object in life; and to be happy, to enjoy life, the object must be one worthy the highest, purest, best part of our nature. - James Platt

There is no man that lives who does not need to be drilled, disciplined, and developed into something higher and nobler and better than he is by nature. Life is one prolonged birth. - Henry Ward Beecher

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. - Ashley Smith

To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

Every moment of our lives is always different. At times it can be easy, and at times it is very hard, but from everything we go through it, we always learn a valuable lesson. - Unknown

You tasted it. Isn't that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That's all we're given in life, that's all we're given of life. A taste. There is no more. - Philip Roth

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you. - Henry J. Kaiser

Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed, and rearrange to relocate us to the place we are meant to be. - Unknown

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Humour

What building has the most stories?
The library

Women: We are busy wearing so many hats in life we deserve to have all the shoes we want.

Why don't you ever hear of a lawyer getting attacked by a shark at the beach?
Professional courtesy.

Why didn’t the dendrochronologist get married?
He only ever dated trees.

How many lawyer jokes are there?
One, the rest are true stories.

The difference between in-laws and outlaws?
Outlaws are wanted.

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Paraprosdokians

People say I act like I don’t give a shit. I’m not acting. - Unknown

I walk around like everything is fine, but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is sliding down. - Unknown

Be the reason someone smiles today. Or the reason they drink. Whatever works. - Unknown

Life is too short to hold a grudge. Slash some tyres and call it even. - Unknown

Someone, somewhere is made for you. Go ruin their life. - Unknown

Yesterday I wore something from 5 years ago, and it fitted. So proud of myself. It was a scarf. But still. Let’s be positive here. - Unknown

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Humour

Life - Quotes

It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any. - Hugh Laurie

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Life is the most exciting opportunity we have. But we have one shot. You graduate from college once, and that’s it. You’re going out of that nest. And you have to find that courage that’s deep, deep, deep in there. Every step of the way. - Andrew Shue

Life is basically like a soap bubble. It rides on the wind, flying here and there, … And before you realize it, pop! It’s gone. When it’s about to disappear, you think that you could’ve flown a bit higher. But by the time, it’s already too late. - Sakata Gintoki

Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don’t change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow. - Woodie Guthrie

An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed with beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a person. - Thomas Moore

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Humorous Quotes

How can you tell when someone eats right, drinks protein shakes, and goes to the gym every day? Don’t worry… they’ll tell you. Oh they’ll fucking tell you. - Unknown

I am in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met. - Unknown

It’s never too late to be what you want to be. Unless you want to be younger… then you’re screwed. - Unknown

Life seems to drag until you’re 17, then you blink and you’re 35 with a beer belly and only 4 friends left. - Unknown

I stopped fighting my inner demons. We are on the same side now. - Unknown

I love waving at random people, because you know for the rest of the day they’re trying to figure out who the hell you were. - Unknown

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Success - Quotes

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flare for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. - Margaret Thatcher

Happiness - Quotes

True happiness is not found in materialistic things. It comes from the love and laughter found with each other. - Unknown

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. - George Orwell

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the of of life is happiness. - George Orwell

Life - Quotes

Wouldn’t it be nice if life took a cue from horse racing and a gun went off when it was time for us to get moving? Life rarely sends us a signal as clear as a starter’s pistol. It's up to us to recognize when it's time to just start. - Stuart R. Levine

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it. - Audrey Hepburn

I know not what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Life is like a movie, if you’ve sat through more than half of it and its sucked every second so far, it probably isn’t gonna get great right at the end and make it all worthwhile. None should blame you for walking out early. - Doug Stanhope

The answer is simple: if you cannot find meaning inherent in life right now, as you live it in this visible world, the addition of an infinite amount more of the same isn't about to somehow make it any more meaningful! Add a whole string of zeroes to a zero and watch what happens. - Robert M. Price

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Humour

Friendship

Friendship plays a key role to emotional growth and mental health. It boosts your happiness. Talking to a friend lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of depression. Hugging, listening, sharing, connecting and celebrating life with friends deceases stress. That’s what friends are for: they help you live longer. - Unknown

Writing - Quotes

The factors controlling a writer's popularity are as mysterious and ultimately as unknowable as the number of stars in the sky. - Samuel R. Delany

The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter, a talk on the street, a book, a phrase learned. - Anais Nin

The man, the writer, the instrument of the creation will die, but his creation does not die. - Luigi Pirandello

The more you write, the better you're going to get. Write and write and write. Try not to be hard on yourself. - Gail Carson Levine

When I write, I don't know what is going to emerge. I begin in a condition of complete unknowing, an utter nakedness of concept or goal. A word appears, another word appears, an image. It is a moving into mystery. - Jane Hirshfield

Without a pen in my hand I can't think. - John le Carre

Write and share your experiences with others. Never underestimate your writings. It can bring hope and inspiration to many people. - Lailah Gifty Akita

Write. Don't talk about writing. Don't tell me about your wonderful story ideas. Don't give me a bunch of "somedays." Plant your ass and scribble, type, keyboard. If you have any talent at all, it will leak out despite your failure to pay attention in English. - Glen Cook

Writers are made – forged, really, in a kiln of their own madness and insecurities. - Chuck Wendig

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. - Henry David Thoreau

Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolours. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing. - Joan Didion

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it. - Ernest Hemingway

Love - Quotes

Maybe love isn’t what we’ve been told. Maybe it’s not all romance or attraction. Maybe love is a friend. Someone who understands you. Someone who’ll be there for you… even at your worst. - R. M. Drake

Don’t love too deeply until you’re sure that the other person loves you with the same depth. Because the depth of your love today is the depth of your wound tomorrow. - Unknown

True love requires faith, trust and loyalty. Not chocolate, flowers and expensive gifts. - Unknown

If being loved is your goal, you will fail to achieve it. The only way to be assured of being loved is to be a person worthy of love. - M. Scott Peck

More on Love Here, and the book The Light of Love

Truth - Quotes

The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed. - Aristotle

The search for truth is, as it always has been, the noblest expression of the human spirit. Man’s insatiable desire for knowledge about himself, about his environment and the forces by which he is surrounded, gives life its meaning and purpose, and clothes it with final dignity.... And yet we know, deep in our hearts, that knowledge is not enough.... Unless we can anchor our knowledge to moral purposes, the ultimate result will be dust and ashes – dust and ashes that will bury the hopes and monuments of men beyond recovery. - Raymond B. Fosdick

The truth may often be carried about by those who themselves remain all unaware of it. They bear that which has weight and substance and yet for them has no name whereby it may be evoked or called forth. They go about ignorant of the true nature of their condition, such are the wiles of truth and such its stratagems. - Cormac McCarthy

Life - Quotes

The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. - Bob Moawab

Life is like a game of chess, in which there are a number of complex moves possible. The choice is open, but the move contains within itself all future moves. One is free to choose, but what follows is the result of one's choice. From the consequences of one's actions, there is never any escape. - Shelly Smith

Life is like a game of chess. To win you have to make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with IN-SIGHT and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are accumulated along the way. We become each and every piece within the game called life! - Allan Rufus

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. - Marie Curie

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. - Dale Carnegie

What is a fear of living? It’s being pre-eminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good. - Maya Angelou

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Quote Worthy

If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable. - Donald Trump

Seeing and admitting the truth about ourselves, about our role in creating our own problems, and about how we relate to others is vital for healing. - M. Scott Peck

Show me someone without an ego, and I'll show you a loser. - Donald Trump

The healthy self, however, must always be vigilant against the laziness of the sick self that still lurks within us. - M. Scott Peck

Those things that hurt, instruct. - Benjamin Franklin

Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity. - Donald Trump

We are almost always less or more competent than we believe ourselves to be. The unconscious, however, knows who we really are. - M. Scott Peck

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

Jokes

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Change

If you are serious about change, you have to go through uncomfortable situations and stop trying to dodge the process, it’s the only way to grow. - Unknown

Purpose

Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve towards a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being. - Tom Robbins

Past / Present

I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That's where the fun is. - Donald Trump

Problems

Confronting problems is choosing to suffer now in the hope of future gratification rather than choosing to continue present gratification in the hope that future suffering will not be necessary. - M. Scott Peck

Do not spend too much time planning or trying to anticipate and solve problems before they happen. That is just another kind of excuse for procrastination. Until you start, you won't know where the problems will occur. You won't have the experience to solve them. Instead, get into action, and solve the problems as they arise. - Donald Trump

Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and wisdom. - M. Scott Peck

This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness. Since most of us have this tendency to a greater or lesser degree, most of us are mentally ill to a greater or lesser degree, lacking complete mental health. Some of us will go to quite extraordinary lengths to avoid our problems and the suffering they cause, proceeding far afield from all that is clearly good and sensible in order to try to find an easy way out, building the most elaborate fantasies in which to live, sometimes to the total exclusion of reality. - M. Scott Peck

When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us. - M. Scott Peck

Winning

Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive. - Donald Trump

you If you work long enough and hard enough to understand yourself, you will come to discover that this vast part of your mind, of which you now have little awareness, contains riches beyond imagination. - M. Scott Peck

Writing - Quotes

To finish is sadness to a writer – a little death. He puts the last word down and it is done. But it isn't really done. The story goes on and leaves the writer behind, for no story is ever done. - John Steinbeck

To leave the reader free to decide what your work means, that's the real art; it makes the work inexhaustible. - Ursula K. le Guin

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. - Herman Melville

To this day, if you ask me how I became a writer, I cannot give you an answer. To this day, if you ask me how a book is written, I cannot answer. For long periods, if I didn't know that somehow in the past I had written a book, I would have given up. - V. S. Naipaul

Trouble not thyself about the fate of thy writings: if what thou hast writ be worth preserving, no flood, however mighty, can sweep it away; if it be worthless, no ink, however prepared, can make it indelible. - Ivan Panin

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance. - Alexander Pope

We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid. The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time. - Anne Lamott

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. - Ray Bradbury

Wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day's work. - Ernest Hemingway

Well, the secret to writing is writing. It's only a secret to people who don't want to hear it. Writing is how you be a writer. - Ursula K. le Guin

Well, there are certain stock words that I have found myself using a great deal. When I become aware of them, it is an alarm signal meaning I am falling back on something that has served in the past – it is a sign of not thinking at the present moment, not that there is anything intrinsically bad about certain words or phrases. - John Ashbery

What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish. - Thomas Wolfe

What separates the professionally successful ... from all the rest is their ability to stay steady, to have stamina. It is one thing to write a good sentence, another to write a good book. - Katy Lederer

What you're trying to do when you write is to crowd the reader out of his own space and occupy it with yours, in a good cause. You're trying to take over his sensibility and deliver an experience that moves from mere information. - Robert Stone

When a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too. - Stephen King

Love - Quotes

The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens – but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters. - Tom Robbins

If you love something, love it completely, cherish it, say it, but most importantly show it. Life is finite and fragile, and just because something is there one day, it might not be the next. Never take that for granted. Say what you need to say, then say a little more. Say too much. Show too much. Love too much. Everything is temporary but Love. Love outlives us all. - Unknown

Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled – thus one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty. - Rudolf Steiner

More on Love Here, and the book The Light of Love

Truth - Quotes

Truth has power. And if we all gravitate toward similar ideas, maybe we do so because those ideas are true ... written deep within us. And when we hear the truth, even if we don't understand it, we feel that truth resonate within us ... vibrating with our unconscious wisdom. Perhaps the truth is not learned by us, but rather, the truth is re-called ... re-membered ... re-cognized ... as that which is already inside us. - Dan Brown

There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulent as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors. - Charles Caleb Colton

There is no doubt that truth is to falsehood as light is to darkness; and so excellent a thing is truth that even when it touches humble and lowly matters, it still incomparably exceeds the uncertainty and falsehood in which great and elevated discourses are clothed; because even if falsehood be the fifth element of our minds, notwithstanding this, truth is the supreme nourishment of the higher intellects. - Leonard da Vinci

Truth is like the stars; it does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night. Truth is like all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its desirability except to those who first feel the influence of falsehood. Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness. - Kahlil Gibran

Life - Qutoes

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. - M. Scott Peck

Some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. - Gilda Radner

You can’t prepare for everything life’s going to throw at you... And you can’t avoid danger. It’s there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you’ll miss out on all the adventure. - Jeannette Walls

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at the given moment. - Viktor E. Frankl

Life is not the unique property of Earth. Nor is life in the shape of human beings. Life takes many forms on other planets and far stars, forms that would seem bizarre to humans, as human life is bizarre to other life-forms. - H.P Lovecraft

Life is short, if we are only said to live when we enjoy ourselves; and if we were merely to count up the hours we spent agreeably, a great number of years would hardly make up a life of a few months. - Jean De La Bruyere

Life is so generous a giver but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. - Fra Giovanni

The secret to life is to have no fear. When you can let go of what others think about you, how something is going to turn out, or how your past will affect your future, then you are finally living life free. - Shannon L. Alder

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Humour

Humour

Jokes

Friends - Quotes

Friends are present in our lives to hold the light for us when ours is dimmed. - Unknown

It’s the friends we meet along the way that make our journey worthwhile. - Unknown

In friendship, it is better to talk with each other instead of talking about each other. - Unknown

If you are looking for a friend who is faultless, you will be friendless. - Rumi

Friends are flowers in the garden of life. - Proverb

A friend is someone who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden. - Unknown

Intelligent people tend to have less friends than the average person. The smarter you are, the more selective you become. - Nikola Tesla

As we go through life, we start to understand that it’s not important to have a lot of friends. What truly matters is that we have real friends. - Unknown

A friend that motivates you is a blessing. - Unknown

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Expectations

Expect more from yourself than from others. Because expectations from others hurt a lot, while expectations from yourself inspire a lot. That’s life. - Unknown

Experience

Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. - Donald Trump

Fear

But while all fear is not laziness, much fear is exactly that. Much of our fear is fear of a change in the status quo, a fear that we might lose what we have if we venture forth from where we are now. - M. Scott Peck

Help

Cries for help are frequently inaudible. - Tom Robbins

Human

There is no such thing as a weird human being, it’s just that some people require more understanding than others. - Tom Robbins

Humanity

Throughout most of our history, nothing – not flood, famine, plague, or new weapons – has endangered humanity one-tenth as much as the narcissistic ego, with its self-aggrandizing presumptions and its hell-hound spawn of fear and greed. - Tom Robbins

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. - Tom Robbins

Magic

If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill – take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edges of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic. - Tom Robbins

Marriage

Marriage doesn’t guarantee that you will be together forever, it’s only paper. I takes trust, respect, commitment, understanding, friendship and faith in your relationship to make it last. - Unknown

People

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe there are two kind of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better. - Tom Robbins

Love - Quotes

The feeling of love is the emotion that accompanies the experience of cathecting. Cathecting, it will be remembered, is the process by which an object becomes important to us. Once cathected, the object, commonly referred to as a ‘love object,’ is invested with our energy as if it were a part of ourselves, and this relationship between us and the invested object is called a cathexis. - M. Scott Peck

What you describe is parasitism, not love. When you require another individual for your survival, you are a parasite on that individual. There is no choice, no freedom involved in your relationship. It is a matter of necessity rather than love. Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other. - M. Scott Peck

The genuine lover always respects and even encourages this separateness and the unique individuality of the beloved. Failure to perceive and respect this separateness is extremely common, however, and the cause of much mental illness and unnecessary suffering. - M. Scott Peck

Writing - Quotes

The old, slow, creaking descriptions are a thing of the past; today the rule is brevity – but every word must be supercharged, high-voltage. - Yevgeny Zamyatin

The poet cannot invent new words every time, of course. He uses the words of the tribe. But the handling of the word, the accent, a new articulation, renew them. - Eugene Ionesco

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things. - Chris Abani

The process of creating is related to the process of dreaming although when you are writing you're doing it and when you're dreaming, it's doing you. - Robert Stone

The process of writing a novel is like taking a journey by boat. You have to continually set yourself on course. If you get distracted or allow yourself to drift, you will never make it to the destination. - Walter Mosley

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. - Albert Camus

The right story needs the right telling. - John Green

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. - Anaïs Nin

The same common-sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading. - Jean de la Bruyere

The thing to remember when you're writing is, it's not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It's whether it wakes a truth in your reader. - Charles de Lint

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't. It's incredibly annoying for us scribblers. - Iain M. Banks

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly. - Julian Barnes

There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living – cook books and detective stories. - Rex Stout

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily. - Anthony Trollope

There would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing. - Markus Zusak

There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair. - Huraki Murakami