Flattery in courtship is the highest insolence, for whilst it pretends to bestow on you more than you deserve, it is watching an opportunity to take from you what you really have.

The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.

I was condemned to be beheaded, or burnt, as the king pleased; and he was graciously pleased, from the great remains of his love, to choose the mildest sentence.

Tis this desire of bending all things to our own purposes which turns them into confusion and is the chief source of every error in our lives.

I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer, particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

I'm a right pain in the hole for my agent. I won't take certain parts if I think they're offensive or banal. For instance, I won't do a film if I think it's full of violence for violence's sake, or a television drama if I don't think it's intelligent writing.

I've always thought it was important not to attach too much superstition to the space where you're writing, because once you get into the mindset that you can only do it a certain way in a certain place, your creativity can get blocked.