"When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves."

"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."

"Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different."

"It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves."

"I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming."

"Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build on it it's only good for wallowing in."

"I want to be all that I am capable of becoming."

"Whenever I prepare for a journey I prepare as though for death. Should I never return, all is in order."

"Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel."

"Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all."

"Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change."

"Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people."

"If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools."

"Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness."

"What do you want most to do? That's what I have to keep asking myself, in the face of difficulties."

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."

"Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them."

"I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face."

"I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing."

"I'm a writer first and a woman after."