I am plain-speaking out of both sides of my mouth.

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.

But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.

Because we don't really sparkle.

When the lyrical content is based on the word of God it becomes covenanted.

Whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it you can see that it is true.

I'm not a diva. I know what I like and I know what I want.

When you're in show business no matter what you're doing it's an insecure business.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die.

I prefer her [Nina Simone's] jazz period much more so than her folk period.

I have been given much, and so I want to give as much as I can.