Saul Bellow

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.

Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.

It's usually the selfish people who are loved the most. They do what you deny yourself, and you love them for it. You give them your heart.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

A man is only as good as what he loves.

Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.

Boredom is the conviction that you can't change ... the shriek of unused capacities.

We are funny creatures. We don't see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire

One thought-murder a day keeps the psychiatrist away.

You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.

I love solitude but I prize it most when company is available.

People don't realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature.

You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it. 

There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.