The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.

The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.

Genius... is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.

Colloquial poetry is to the real art as the barber's wax dummy is to sculpture.

The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.

As a bathtub lined with white porcelain, When the hot water gives out or goes tepid, So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion, O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.

The ant's a centaur in his dragon world.

All great art is born of the metropolis.

'Tis the white stag, Fame, we're a-hunting, bid the world's hounds come to horn!

What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it.

I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn't irascible.

We start our lives with blues . . . with music. It's our first language. It's the rhythm of the womb. It's your mama's heartbeat inside your head.

The soul gets tougher with every endure situation.

[G]ive him this much: death didn't just walk up and inhale him. He wasn't exactly whisked away. He left claw marks on his life.

I am of the opinion that there is nothing which has been produced by the will of man which cannot in its turn be altered by another human will.

A woman only needs one pair of shoes for an outfit. But God, you've got to get it just right.

No one has yet computed how many imaginary triumphs are silently celebrated by people each year to keep up their courage.

To be clear, geoengineering won't solve global warming. It's not a 'techno-fix.' It would be enormously risky and almost certainly lead to troubling unforeseen consequences.

Now I know that I don't have to go after every batter with the hardest pitch I've got.

When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?

It is tragic that Howard Hughes had to die to prove that he was alive.