Attacking a belief can be the first step toward embracing it.

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

...there is more good in contentment, than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent...

He lifted a hand to her face, running a fingertip across her cheekbone and down to her mouth. It lingered for a moment before he dropped his hand to his side. "I'll be here.

I have the happy circumstance of either being accused of political grandstanding on the one hand or cover-ups on the other.

You could say that all of life is a series of last chances.

It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

Patience and foresight are the two most important qualities in business

Do not lose hope; St. Joseph also experienced moments of difficulty, but he never lost faith and was able to overcome them, in the certainty that God never abandons us.

Accents are funny. It sets me apart from the other girls doing comedy. It gives me more—how do you say?—pop-oo-laaarrrity.

There are plenty of bad editors who try to impose their own vision on a book. (…) A good novel editor is invisible.

Nothing is an absolute reality, all is permitted.