Perhaps it is because Venice is both liquid and solid, both air and stone, that it somehow combines all the elements crucial to make our imaginations ignite and turn fantasies into realities.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.

The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness.

You will meet happiness on your way if you just stop looking for happiness desperately! Live your life without looking for anything!

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

It was complicated. I understood it, mostly, but I had to think a little sideways to do it.

The homeland might be lacking snakes, but it held its share of venom.

Facebook is weird. They have all of these seemingly random rules that I'm sure make sense to them, but don't make sense to me or any people.

Mass entertainment in America has been dominated for a long time by the mode of documentary realism.

I like the noise of democracy.

History is our guide, and without a knowledge of history, we are lost!

There is a logical explanation for everything, often mistaken for the reason it happened.