Most of my decisions in life seem absent-minded but inevitable.

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.

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

What we need is the power to pray.

A beautiful woman looking at her image in the mirror may very well believe the image is herself. An ugly woman knows it is not.

If I were John LennonAnd my feelings for you grew, I'd have left The BeatlesTo spend all my time with you

There are more hooligans in the House of Commons than at a football match.

We talk about taking "pleasure in a thing": but in truth it is pleasure in ourselves, mediated by a thing.

Being a heart throb would be crazy.

I will give them nightmares to haunt their dreams long after I'm gone.

My teacher said once that every man faces seven enemies in his lifetime. Sickness, hunger, betrayal, envy, greed, old age, and then death.

No scene of mortal life but teems with mortal woe.