“You only really discover a masterpiece after a third or fourth reading, don’t you agree?”“And how can you tell something is a masterpiece?”“I don’t skip over the same passages”.”

“And when I think there are people around me who complain they can't find anything good to read. What nonsense ... every month you and I discover a masterpiece.”

“You have a masterpiece inside you, you know. One unlike any that has ever been created, or ever will be. If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it. Only you.”

“I don’t know how you can stand it. Over and over again, the same sadness—”He lifted her up. “The same ecstasy—”“The same fire that kills everything—”“The same passion that ignites it all again. You don’t know. You can’t remember how wonderful—”“I’ve seen it. I do know.”

“When one's thoughts and experience have not reached a certain point for reading a masterpiece, the masterpiece will leave only a bad flavor on his palate.”

“I challenge you to make your life the masterpiece you want to paint, the novel you want to read, the day you want to wake to.”