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“I am very much afraid of definitions, and yet one is almost forced to make them. One must take care, too, not to be inhibited by them.”
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“From a very early period of my life I have derived the highest enjoyment from listening to music, especially to melody, which is to me the most pleasing form of composition.”
Source : James Nasmyth, Samuel Smiles (1883). “James Nasmyth Engineer: An Autobiography”, London : J. Murray
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“It seems to be impossible to hold a credible election without reforming the electoral system.”
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“On the worst days, I don't feel like an artist.”
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“My next book is on the Salem witch trials. As a small-town Massachusetts girl, this makes me very happy. So does the reunion with documents!”
Source : "Stacy Schiff, author of 'Cleopatra: A Life,' on the perfect biography subject". Interview with Elizabeth Taylor, www.chicagotribune.com. 
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“When I wrote the story ["The Cartographers"], I'd just gone through a breakup with a woman I'd loved dearly. Without this other person in my life, the memories we'd shared often felt like phantoms. Who was this person I once loved? Did she still really exist? The answer, on a metaphysical level, was that this person didn't still exist. She'd gone on to become a different person, an individual with new hopes and dreams which no longer involved me.”
Source : Source: www.raintaxi.com
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“The Vichy government was under occupation and carried out the orders of the German occupier.”
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“Some Pulitzer winners - novelists - have confided to me that getting the prize screwed them up. It messed with their heads. That hasn't been my experience.”
