Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.

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.

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.

Love is like a rose. So beautiful to look at, yet so painful to touch.

My garden in England is full of eating-out places, for heat waves, warm September evenings, or lunch on a frosty Christmas morning.

You never know if you're a writer. You can't trust it. If you woke up and said, "I'm a writer," it would be gone. You wouldn't see anything for miles - even the dust would be running away.

I am lord of myself, accountable to none.

A real man makes his own luck.

There is a God-shaped hole in the life of every man.

I also surround myself with people who make me laugh. If I'm not laughing, it upsets my day.

Medieval and ancient sensibility now dominates our time as acoustic and multisensory awareness displaces the merely visual.

We may idealize freedom, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely enslaved.