Stated clearly enough, an idea may cancel itself out.

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.

I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty.

Job tip: If you were the employer, what kind of person would you most desire as an employee? Be that person.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

Happiness is nothing but good health and freedom, and money is the single best way you can buy your freedom.

Nonsense, do you imagine he has thought as much of you as you have of him?

The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second, something to reverence.

Yes!’ Beck crowed, pumping his fist into the air. ‘That rocks!’ Then he charged off in search of another Three to decapitate. Riley sighed to herself. ‘I’ve created a monster.

Even then, our family was extraordinary, with ten kids.

As for my next book, I won't write it till it has grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.

He was not so much brain as earwax