The spiral is a spiritualized circle. In the spiral form, the circle, uncoiled, has ceased to be vicious; it has been set free.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

Everything I say about [writing] battles applies equally well in the boudoir.

Being an unpublished novelist has about as much social acceptability as being a shopping bag lady.

FAY: The British police force used to be run by men of integrity. TRUSCOTT: That is a mistake which has been rectified.

Everybody should have a chance to rise. That's our philosophy in Ohio and that's my philosophy for America.

We all owe life a death, an inevitable death which we can meet. But the unnecessary death that wastes life denies all consolation.

The highest state is laughter.

Going after the unknown is always fascinating, I think. It becomes part of your life, this desire to know.

Once you're a Motown artist, that's your stigmatism, and I was there from the very first day

Heliotrope. To be sowed in the spring. A delicious flower, but I suspect it must be planted in boxes and kept in the house in the winter. The smell rewards the care.

The very essence of school is elitism. Schools exist to teach, to test, to rank hierarchically to promote the idea that knowing and understanding more is better than knowing and understanding less.