Of all fatiguing, futile, empty trades, the worst, I suppose, is writing about writing.

Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.

Oh, my friends, be warned by me, That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea, Are all human frame requires.

Of all fatiguing, futile, empty trades, the worst, I suppose, is writing about writing.

Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.

The grace of God is courtesy.

Money gives me pleasure all the time.

The microbe is so very small: You cannot take him out at all.

Be content to remember that those who can make omelettes properly can do nothing else.

Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language.

Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death.

Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.

It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation.

I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Just as there is nothing between the admirable omelet and the intolerable, so with autobiography.

An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.

When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

I am writing a book about the Crusades so dull that I can scarcely write it.

From quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there's nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.

I'm tired of love; I'm still more tired of rhyme; but money gives me pleasure all the time.

The moment a man talks to his fellows he begins to lie.

Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring.

When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly.

It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing them.

All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men.

The pilgrim is humble and devout, and human, and charitable, and ready to smile and admire; therefore, he should comprehend the whole of his way, the poeple in it, and the hills and the clouds, and the habits of the various cities.

There is not anything that can so suddenly flood the mind with shame as the conviction of ignorance, yet we are all ignorant of nearly everything there is to be known.

We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfilment.

We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment.

The machine does not control the mind of man, though it affects the mind of man; it is the mind of man that can and should control the machine.

Ownership is not a general feature of our society, determining its character. On the contrary, dependence on a precarious wage at the will of others is the general feature of our society.

The pilgrim is humble and devout, and human, and charitable, and ready to smile and admire; therefore, he should comprehend the whole of his way, the people in it, and the hills and the clouds, and the habits of the various cities.

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment.

Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for.

My singing is my hobby. It's me and my brother. We just enjoy writing music.

I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move beyond imitation and discover what you can write that no one else can - that is, find out who you are and write that in an appropriate narrative and style.

That music and the lyrical aspects of Razorblade Romance is so personal to me that, now with me being grown up a bit and meeting new people and doing new things, it makes me look at the same things I was writing about back in the day through a different colored lens.

As a member of this court I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution, no matter how deeply I may cherish them or how mischievous I may deem their disregard.

I did know that the book would end with a mind-boggling trial, but I didn't know exactly how it would turn out. I like a little suspense when I am writing, too.

For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.

Writing allows me the time to travel and see the world, which is what I always wanted to do. I'd really like to have been Sir Richard Francis Burton, but it's the wrong century.

I've written many extra verses to songs that I learned to sing - an extra verse about a friend, or just add some verse - and that led to writing my own songs.

Book writing is a little different because, in my case, my editor is a year younger than me and basically has the same sensibility as me.

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist.

I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous.

Maybe I spent more time dwelling on emotions than some people, and maybe that's why I ended up writing.

Writing songs has a therapeutic effect, and it either kills off love or wins the heart of the lover.