Paradise endangered: garden snakes and mice are appearing in the shadowy corners of Dutch Old Master paintings.

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.

Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think.

Where's the fun in that?

She teaches me that the world is made to be pounced on and enjoyed, and that there is absolutely no reason at all to hold back.

Everyone is creative and everyone is a techie.

If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative.

On Creating — What we crave, what we want to see in others eyes, is that servile expression, an unconcealed infatuation with our gestures.

I prefer to stroll which has a buddy at nighttime, than by itself inside the light.

All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing.

Most entrepreneurs will admit luck plays a part in success.

People don't paint for the hell of it. It's a deeply seated thing - a preoccupation - the whole of one's life.