It was a book to kill time for those who liked it better dead.

It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.

Life, for all its agonies...is exciting and beautiful, amusing and artful and endearing...and whatever is to come after it -- we shall not have this life again.

So they left the subject and played croquet, which is a very good game for people who are annoyed with one another, giving many opportunities for venting rancor.

At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.

Once you get to know your neighbors, you are no longer free, you are all tangled up, you have to stop and speak when you are out and you never feel safe when you are in.

The great and recurrent question about Abroad is, is it worth the trouble of getting there?

Human passions against eternal laws -- that is the everlasting conflict.

To lunch with the important ... that should be the daily goal of those for whom life is not a playground but a ladder.

The impulse to ask questions is among the more primitive human lusts.

As to the family, I have never understood how that fits in with the other ideals -- or, indeed, why it should be an ideal at all.

Though her emotions had not deviated from a jittery frailty she knew that in her own room she could at least attempt sleep and that if she dreamed she might then finally be with Henry.

Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.

The music business doesn't take up that much of my time. I probably should put a little more energy into it.

The sense of wonder, that is our sixth sense.

Between God and the soul there is no between.

I love anything that gets me outside of my own head.

Nobody "becomes" a character. You can't act unless you are who you are.

Flatterers and men of learning do not accord well with each other.

No other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation than the unexpected success.

I need one good honky tonk angel to turn my life around.