Self-congratulation pleases only the speaker.

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.

Have faith in your beliefs

It is what we think we know that keeps us from learning.

Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience.

When prayer fades out, power fades out. We are as spiritual as we are prayerful; no more, no less.

A minister who moves about in society is in a position to read the signs of the times even in a festive gathering, but one who remains shut up in his office learns nothing.

Anything mentionable is manageable.

When I got started in New York, if you were different from Miles & Dizzy it was very difficult.

Those are miracles that no merely human brain can work. The artist is merely the sound conduct of a Force that dictates to him what he should do.

Facebook? I have no clue about it. MySpace, none of that. I'm the worst.

What the river was showing her now was that she could flow beyond the brokenness, redeem herself, and fuse once more.