“All grown-ups were once children, but only a few of them remember it.”

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”

“Fear cuts deeper than swords.”

“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”

“Reader's Bill of Rights”

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

“I've never been lonely. I've been in a room — I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful, awful beyond all, but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me, or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen: 'The strongest men are the most alone.' I've never thought, 'Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good.' No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd: 'Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?' Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!”

“That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”

“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.”

“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, "How many good things have you done in your life?" Rather he will ask, "How much love did you put into what you did?"”

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

“Two people in love, alone and isolated from the world. That's beautiful.”

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”

“People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

“It's a metaphor. You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.”

“Let everything happen to you.”

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love; let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

“There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

“The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.”

“If you're looking for sympathy you'll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.”

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.”

“We live and breathe words. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them. Reading your words, what you wrote, how you were lonely sometimes and afraid, but always brave; the way you saw the world, its colors and textures and sounds, I felt, I felt the way you thought, hoped, felt, dreamt. I felt I was dreaming and thinking and feeling with you. I dreamed what you dreamed, wanted what you wanted, and then I realized that truly I just wanted you.”

“War is peace.”

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.”

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

“Don't let the expectations and opinions of others affect your decisions. It's your life, not theirs. Do what matters to you and what makes you feel alive and happy. Don't let other people's ideas limit who you are. If you let them tell you who you are, you will be living their reality, not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people or following someone else's prescribed path. Decide who you are for yourself. Become whole. Choose adventure.”

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

“Stupid people are dangerous.”

“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”

“I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.”

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

“Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.”

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.”

“Angry people are not always wise.”

“You do not have to be good.”

“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.”

“You have to die a few times before you can really live.”

“With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?”

“We're all seeking that special person who is right for us. But if you've been through enough relationships, you begin to suspect there's no right person, just different flavors of wrong. Why is this? Because you yourself are wrong in some way, and you seek out partners who are wrong in some complementary way. But it takes a lot of living to grow fully into your own wrongness. And it isn't until you finally run up against your deepest demons, your unsolvable problems, the ones that make you truly who you are, that we're ready to find a lifelong mate. Only then do you finally know what you're looking for. You're looking for the wrong person. But not just any wrong person: it's got to be the right wrong person, someone you lovingly gaze upon and think, 'This is the problem I want to have.'”

“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”