In Rome the statues, in Paris the paintings, and in Prague the buildings suggest that pleasure can be an education.

But what are they?” Annie asked.“An omphalos, probably, ” said Jacob.“A what, dear?” Melinda asked.“A bellybutton of the world.”“I didn’t know it had one.

– I’m going to be a writer, he reminded Milo.– And you won’t need literature?– I’ll write my own.

By its nature a relationship was not an accomplishment. It was just a connection that happened to exist, for as long as it did exist.

Since he had given up men he had taken up geography. He visited a new sight or a new neighborhood nearly every weekend.

He was in the flow of time now. He was in a story.

There’s always a story that people are telling about themselves, and sometimes you can get them to tell it ever so slightly differently.

It is perhaps necessary for something dear to be lost.”“Why?”“Perhaps it is necessary to the making of a story. A story after all is a way of remembering love.

It’s a question of wanting to know how the story turns out. And one can only know that about one story, ever.

A year ago he had been in America. Two years ago he had been straight. Tonight he was underground, with the remains of the bogey man, lit by the torches of the children who had killed him.

I suppose it does come with a certain responsibility.”“What does?” asked Annie.“The magnificence of my person.”“Gah.

Each individual is born into life as a creation from the source, and as an inhabitant and visitor to this planet.

The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another's pain as one's own, and to act to take that pain away, . There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

Taking chances almost always makes for happy endings.

All this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us the by senses and experience.

He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hand, and tried to tell himself at last he had become a man.

There's a small island, inhabited in the South Pacific that I will try to swim to.

We've given Iraq six months and I don't think things are really working out, so we should probably bring our troops home.

Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.

To solve a problem or to reach a goal, you don't need to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach.