"I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream."

"Instead of going home, I drove to the library. To hell with human beings. I’d always felt safer with stories than with flesh and blood."

"Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often."

"No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way."

"Some things you cannot wish away or think away. They become part of you when you remember them."

"Crying wasn't like riding a bike. Give it up, and you quickly forget how it's done."

"Some people say, 'Save yourself and you save your ways.' I say, 'Be yourself and you save your soul."

"The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world."

"That is the joy of reading fiction: when all is said and done, the novel belongs to the reader and his or her imagination."

"He started to look at me in a manner I recognized: it was the way I looked at a new book, one I had never read before, one that surprised me with all it had to say."

"In losing a friend, she is reminded of all she has lost and all she stands to lose again. There is nothing to be done to make it any easier. We all grieve alone."

"Sometimes words drew blood, they cut your tongue, they made you know things you couldn't unknow."

"I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for."

"Still, she knows one thing for certain: never judge a relationship unless you are the one wrapped up in its arms."

"Here is the riddle of love: Everything it gives to you, it takes away."

"Once you know some things, you can't unknow them. It's a burden that can never be given away."

Acting is largely about putting on masks, and music is about removing them.

Face it, I didn't become famous until I took my clothes off.

I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see multi-level casting. I think we will see that, and I think that's good.

As much as it's nice to step into that massive world of Hollywood and be a big, famous actor, I prefer the career of actors that have really chosen smartly and done really amazing performances. Maybe they're not as known, but their careers are a bit more interesting.

I'm not a popular actor. I don't necessarily want to be famous. I want to be known for great work. I want to be known to surprise audiences.

“Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it”

“But you do not die because you are sick, you die because you are alive.”

“The way of truth is one and artless; the way of private gain and success...is double, uneven, and fortuitous.'