Saying "I feel guilty" is a mere form of words. Saying "I feel ashamed" is not.

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.

That's how birthdays were in our house. All hateful charades of pretty clothes, expensive presents, and ugly words . . .

Fatigue is what we experience, but it is what a match is to an atomic bomb.

But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.

The Expulsion from Eden is an act of vindictive womanish spite; the Fall of Man, as recounted in the Bible, comes nearer to the Fall of God.

The rich have a passion for bargains as lively as it is pointless.

There might be a different model for a literary community that's quicker, more real-time, and involves more spontaneity.

Don't let anybody tell you it's corporations and businesses that create jobs.

With respect to those meanings of 'human' that are relevant to the morality of abortion, any fetus is less human than an adult pig.

I don't see why religion and science can't cooperate. What's wrong with using a computer to count our blessings?