“We can never cease to be ourselves.”

“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.”

“It is not only by dint of lying to others, but also of lying to ourselves, that we cease to notice that we are lying.”

“If we all got over ourselves; there’d be no greatness, we’d all cease to strive”

“The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves hat we would never see, never permit ourselves to see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again”

“No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.”