Benny [Goodman] used to practice 15 times more than the whole band combined.

Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili.

Give when you have nothing to give. That is when it will bring you the most joy.

He wanted terribly, to say, Stop, to say Bern’s name, to stroke her soft cheek where it was bitten by the light. But, in the end, he didn’t do anything at all.

Being cool is being your own self, not doing something that someone else is telling you to do.

What am I that I am called upon to have prejudices concerning the universe?

With each victory of the light, it is the dark that wins.

Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Your village may be different from other people's villages but we are all prisoners.

A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.

I'm just thinking too fast-- much too fast.

They say dogs ignore their reflections in mirrors because they can't smell them. Dogs, unlike people, are not fooled by what they see.