"I adore imaginary monsters, but I am terrified of real ones."

“...poetry is paying attention to life when all the world seems asleep to its beauties and truths...”

“Guilt. It comes naturally to me as a Jew and a Liberal.”

“A nation is a body of people who have done great things together.”

“I think your most intimate thoughts are only honest when they're in your head.”

“There's no such thing as a mistake--we do it! There's no such thing as an accident--we do it!.”

Source : 2003 In a question and answer session at the National Film Theatre, London, 4 Nov.

“You see, this would be a death by the imagination. And though the imagination feeds on phantoms, it needs a premise in reality to begin with. Then it can go on from there under its own power.”

“If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.”

“Gratitude is like a flashlight. If you go out in your yard at night and turn on a flashlight, you suddenly can see what's there. It was always there, but you couldn't see it in the dark.”

Source : M. J. Ryan (1999). “Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Everyday of Your Life”, p.83, Conari Press