Children now expect their parents to audition for approval.

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.

When all else fails, use the pen.EMW

we are two like-minded creatures too well-matched, both equal halves of a whole not altogether wholesome

But when one does not complain, and when one wants to master oneself with a tyrant’s grip — one’s faculties rise in revolt — and one pays for outward calm with an almost unbearable inner struggle.

Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men

It's a bottom line business where a lot of gray suits are brought in and then, within two years, these guys suddenly know everything about baseball.

Art furnishes us with eyes and hands and above all the good conscience to be able to turn ourselves into such a phenomenon.

I know too much about British politics to comment on British politics.

I do Broadway because I refuse to succumb to the stereotypical things that Hollywood does to a performer.

I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.

I am a big believer that eventually everything comes back to you. You get back what you give out.