"If you want to know why you didn't make a boat -- I'll tell you. You're just out there hammering the water. You're killing fish, not rowing."

“I don’t like to quote myself but unfortunately everybody I know who should be quoting me is dead.”

“Had I mentioned to someone around 1795 that I planned to write, anyone with any sense would have told me to write for two hours every day, with or without inspiration. Their advice would have enabled me to benefit from the ten years of my life I totally wasted waiting for inspiration.”

Source : Enrique Vila-Matas (2007). “Bartleby & Co.”, p.31, New Directions Publishing

“Sailing is just the bottom line, like adding up the score in bridge. My real interest is in the tremendous game of life.”

“I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.”

“The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them.”

“Hope was a dangerous emotion that more often than not led men into foolishness and peril, made them risk their lives and lose their wives and part with fortunes that they never recovered.”

“For ballroom dancing, remember that your partners have their own distinctive styles also. Cultivate flexibility. Be able to adapt your style to that of your partner. In doing so, you are not surrendering your individuality, but blending it with that of your partner.”

“It is impossible, after a certain point, to go back to a previous way of life, a previous way of thinking.”