The discontented believe that their regrets are about the past.

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.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

You can't send me anywhere that I wouldn't be happy to go. You'd be surprised as to how that lightens the heart.

...lust is only a sweet poison for the weakling, but for those who will with a lion's heart it is the reverently reserved wine of wines.

I am probably in the sky, flying with the fish, or maybe in the ocean, swimming with the pigeons. See, my world is different.

I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone.

Because I cannot rely on myself, I rely on Him, twenty-four hours a day.

I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.

Have you ever held a snake? Well, let me tell you, it is so erotic.

I was put here to sing.

One said a tooth drawer was a kind of unconscionable trade, because his trade was nothing else but to take away those things whereby every man gets his living.