Even things that are true can be proved.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

...it's not the medium that's the message - it's consciousness - the wonder of being able to wonder ...

Caress me sister wind and stop this hate.

She's lost in thought. I'm lost in her.

Those who claim the right to that arrogance without accomplishments to back it up deserve to be exposed.

There's a lot of dark stuff from the '80s that we don't think about.

Only towards the end of this process are any of the chapters in fully readable condition, a state of affairs that used to alarm my wife. But Joan's got used to it.

Universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones.

Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to Heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are His enemies, can go to Heaven.

The first indication that we are killing our dreams is lack of time. The second indication of the death of our dreams is certainty. The third indication that our dreams are dead is peace.

There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.