Probably all writers are at some point briefly under the impression that they are in the forefront of disintegration and chaos, that they are among the first to live and work after things fall apart.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

Life begins where needs end.

Wilhelm’s smile reminded Harry of his father’s sad, resigned smile, the smile of a man looking backwards because that’s where the things that made him smile were.

I was performing my ritual of sipping tea, shooting flirtatious glances and planning murder

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

I think the pearls - one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl - really show a kind of [society] condition.

I love to remember my enemies and I love to get my enemies. I had some enemies. I had people that really I helped a lot. And when I needed the help, in some cases, they were not there for me.

There's no person God cannot reach.

He must have killed a lot of men to have made so much money.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems.