"When a young man begins to go down hill everything seems to be greased for the occasion."

“A writer lives, at best, in a state of astonishment.”

“Under no circumstances will any supporter try to tell me what I should do. That is why I have the track record that I have got.”

“I have to deplore the systematic manner in which the literature of Europe has continued to put out of sight our obligations to the Muhammadans. Surely they cannot be much longer hidden. Injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit cannot be perpetuated forever. The Arab has left his intellectual impress on Europe. He has indelibly written it on the heavens as any one may see who reads the names of the stars on a common celestial globe.”

Source : "A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe". Book by John William Draper, Harper & brothers, p. 356, 1863.

“The TV said you should ignore bullies and they would stop harassing you. In practice this worked about half the time. The other half, you ended up with two tall boys shadowing you through a trailer park, their fingers taking little nips at your clothes, like dogs.”

Source : Jennifer Echols (2013). “Levitating Las Vegas”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

“I know that I could make this world peaceful and calm, if I only could get my hands on a hydrogen bomb.”

“I've always wondered why there isn't a great French novel about the German occupation. The nouveau roman authors weren't interested in telling that sort of thing.”

“God wants a child's heart and a grownup's head.”

“Since [violence against women] is rooted in discrimination, impunity and complacency, we need to change attitudes and behavior - and we need to change laws and make sure they are enforced just like you are doing in Cuba.”