In phrases as brief as a breath worldly wisdom concentrates.

Like pollen on a honeybee, flattery clings to the things you tell yourself.

Quotations calcify into clichés.

Cunning authors cut to be quoted.

Flatter yourself critically.

Quotology disdains no quotations whatsoever, a duty it bears stoutly, with bloodshot eyes and sagging shelves.

At its best, flattery is truth well dressed, and it is best dressed with fine see-through fabrics. Honest flattery can caress a lover, cover up a gaffe, and muffle aggression.

Misquotation is quotology’s swamp. Amateur quoters mix and mangle Shakespeare and Scripture. Professors gaffe and printers bungle. It’s a mess we must wade into.

[D]ifferent people have different quotational gravity.

Flattery works like a drug.

If you flatter yourself properly you will be better able to enjoy yourself. Stretch your joy so that others enjoy you too.

Freedom is to live with dignity

I was there for every moment. It made me a better woman and a better person. I can't say that all the damage done by my original family doesn't still haunt me

Poets, in their way, are practical men; they are interested in results.

When I've sent young men and women into harm's way, I always understand that that is the last resort, not the first resort.

Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.

It was so simple in the old days. You put out an album, people promoted it, it got in the charts, and you had a hit.

The spiritual quality of earth: eternally pregnant and containing in its fertility the unwritten cipher of cosmic lore.

In the beginning I didn't want to do a menswear collection. It felt a little forced. And then I found that it was an amazing world.

Courage is a function of process.

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof little more than a little is by much too much.