I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
Jane Austen
They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.
To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty... →
Chance is an element of life. What I try to do is study what I call the mechanics of reality as carefully as I can.
Paul Auster
All through my writing life, I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.
I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing... →
We all die, we all get sick, we all feel hunger and lust and pain, and therefore human life is consistent from one generation to the other. We all -... →
Don't be a writer; it's a terrible way to live your life. There's nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So... →
People who don't like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that's how life is.
Money's important. Everyone cares about money. And when you don't have money, money becomes the overriding obsession of your life.