I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay, rather than the novel. Votes: 0
There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough. Votes: 0
Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason. Votes: 0
One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone. Votes: 0
The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts. Votes: 0
Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them. Votes: 0
There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. Votes: 0
To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect. Votes: 0
Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice. Votes: 0
In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion. Votes: 0
The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone. Votes: 0
It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is. Votes: 0
A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough. Votes: 0
Only by declaring a book completely finished can one start to see how much remains to be done on it. Votes: 0
Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all. Votes: 0
The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning. Votes: 0
The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous. Votes: 0
Not everyone is worth listening to. Votes: 0
One of love's greatest drawbacks is that, for a while at least, it is in danger of making us happy. Votes: 0
Our greatest furies spring from events which violate our sense of the ground of our existence. Votes: 0
Why, then, if expensive things cannot bring us remarkable joy, are we so powerfully drawn to them? Votes: 0
People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft. Votes: 0
You need a long hard day's work to reveal the logic of the craving for very bad tv and alcohol. Votes: 0
A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide. Votes: 0
Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound. Votes: 0
The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call. Votes: 0
The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other's smartphone. Votes: 0