“Polysyllables obfuscate a preponderant ignorance with so much more style and panache.”

“The only way to find out if you're immortal is to make it to the end of time and look around to see if you're still alive. Until you've done that, all you know is that you haven't died yet.”

“Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.”

“I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.”

“Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite – it is a passionate exercise. You may come out of my play uncertain. You may want to be sure. Look down on that feeling. We’ve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That’s the silence under the chatter of our time. ”

“Journalists are notoriously prone to exaggerate the beneficial impact of elections and to ignore more complex developments.”

“It was not so much what Vicki did that night: it was what she said. It was not so much her behaviour: it was her vocabulary!”