A good story is a dream shared by the author and the reader. Anything that wakes the reader from the dream is a mortal sin.

It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.

Charles Dickens

Because I have conducted my own operas and love sheep-dogs; because I generally dress in tweeds, and sometimes, at winter afternoon concerts, have even conducted in them; because I was a militant suffragette and seized a chance of beating time to The March of the Women from the window of my cell in Holloway Prison with a tooth-brush; because I have written books, spoken speeches, broadcast, and don't always make sure that my hat is on straight; for these and other equally pertinent reasons, in a certain sense I am well known.

Dame Ethel Smyth

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or very foolish imagine otherwise

George Orwell

We too. No wisdom to utter. You've beauty, flux, and terror To tell. So've I. And they're Very hard to mutter Through so much chatter and stutter.

Philip José Farmer

I feel, like all modern Americans, no consciousness of sin and simply do not believe in it. All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell. That is a final fact of my inner consciousness, and for no religion could I deny its truth.

Lin Yutang

What could be more beautiful than a dear old lady growing wise with age? Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.

Brigitte Bardot

Color is a plastic means of creating intervals... color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony.

Hans Hofmann

When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.

Orison Swett Marden

Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.

Thomas Wolfe

The temperate person's pleasures are durable because they are regular; and all their life is calm and serene, because it is innocent.

Source Unknown

When I think of a merry, happy, free young girl - and look at the ailing, aching state a young wife generally is doomed to - which you can't deny is the penalty of marriage.

Queen Victoria

But in my heart of hearts, this is the kind of thing... this is what everyone is struggling with in their lives - relationships and family. To me, it's always an interesting area to mine. I'm drawn to it.

Mark Ruffalo