The greater the privilege, the more hidden the arrogance. The Emperor of China need not exist.

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 hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.

If you don’t believe your whole life has been a path leading to this one point, you’re not focused enough.” Master Sergeant Gabriel Luther Wells.

The way I came to miss the end of the world – well, the end of the world I had known for close on thirty years – was sheer accident: like a lot of survival, when you come to think of it.

Whatever you do don't let anybody talk you into doing something about the way you look ever.

I was coming from a very cerebral, dark, difficult, layered play by Christopher Hampton and doing an action movie in Hollywood (Die Hard) with explosions, and I was holding a gun.

It has always been desirable to tell the truth, but seldom if ever necessary.

Wishing for the impossible in the future is a good exercise, I think, especially for children; wishing for it in the past is surely the emptiest and saddest of occupations.

All in all, I wouldn't call it a bad outing. It was a short outing.

God's purpose in increasing our trials is to sensitize us to people we never would have been able to relate to otherwise.

The world divides into facts.