Scholarship can find little to say about the obvious.

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.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

When you fail, embrace it. Bleed. Get hurt. Lose your religion. That's the only way you will do amazing things.

I think the greatest taboos in America are faith and failure.

I want my stories to move people ... to feel some kind of reward from the writing.

It is not very polite to interrupt a person, of course, but sometimes if the person is very unpleasant you can hardly stop yourself.

The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.

When the U.S. government stops wasting our resources by trying to maintain the price of gold, its price will sink to...$6 an ounce rather than the current $35 an ounce.

The more I've walked through tough times, the stronger I've become.

I guess I'm not really fond of just chit-chatting. I want to learn something and have an experience.

Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.