It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.

You know how some people, when they're together, they somehow make you feel more hopeful? Make you feel like the world is not the insane place it really is?

But who has time to write memoirs? I’m still living my memoirs.

Sometimes lost treasures can be reclaimed.

There is the truth of history, and there is the truth of what a person remembers.

Friends are supposed to act like harbor boats—let you know if you’re off course. But it ain’t always possible…

I live in an ocean of smell…

The very air they breathed was almost a juice.

…the love we most cherish will, of necessity, bring us pain. Because that love is like the setting of a body with broken bones. But I want to stage the setting. I want to direct all scenes.

What does my smile look like now? Vivi wondered. Can you reclaim that free-girl smile, or is it like virginity- once you loose it, that's it?

She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread.

We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to contribute.

He then reaches a new low. Without warning, he is suddenly set upon by a bear.

We do not read to pass the time, but to inhabit time.

Knowledge and courage take turns at greatness.

The 1950s to me is darkness, hidden history, perversion behind most doors waiting to creep out. The 1950s to most people is kitsch and Mickey Mouse watches and all this intolerable stuff.

For plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation.

I guess there were fewer differences between me and social psychologists than between me and other people in general

Work faster, smarter and harder

When you keep the porch light on for the prodigal child, you do what God does every single moment.

If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.