Freedom is the moment between sleep and waking before selfhood and the world return.

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.

And I, a twister, love, what I abhor.

Adults follow paths. Children explore.

When the hounds of Spring are on winter's traces, The mother of months in meadow or plain Fills the shadows and windy places With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain.

The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed.

Now I see that I will never find the light Unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, Consuming myself.

Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many-sidedness.

Objectivity is a subject's delusion that observing can be done without him.

I know of only three people who really understand money. A professor at another university. One of my students. And a rather junior clerk at the Bank of England.

Cheerfulness is a very great help in fostering the virtue of charity. Cheerfulness itself is a virtue.

[On a strained relationship between a tennis champion and her mother:] There comes a time when it's probably not cool for your mom to be your best friend.