"I was absorbing a sorry truth of show business - rejection is the norm and acceptance the oddity. I was learning to cut the tops off my highs and stay with the lows where the rejections and letdowns would be shallow."

“There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.”

“It is sometimes frightening to observe the success which comes even to the outlaw with a polished technique, and we find ourselves doubting the validity of the virtues we have been taught. But I believe we must reckon with character in the end, for it is as potent a force in world conflict as it is in our own domestic affairs. It strikes the last blow in any battle.”

“Aren't most romance heros, or heros in fiction of any kind, generally superior to real men? Same goes for heroines and real women.”

“And since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.”

Source : Ann Radcliffe (2015). “The Mysteries of Udolpho: Horror and Romance”, p.80, 谷月社

“The unfortunate are always egotistical.”

“Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise.”

“Craft your love into everything”

“The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag lapel pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.”

Source : "Patriotism and Michelle Obama: A 4th of July Reflection" by Anne-Marie Slaughter, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 11, 2008.