The ugly can achieve an absoluteness beyond the reach of beauty.

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.

When one is different, the answers have to come from within.

I’ve got to stop this. Stop worrying about the why. Stop forcing what was happening into the realm of impossible. Stop hiding behind excuses. Stop being afraid to step out on faith.

I do think that with any kind of infidelity, on some level - unless you're dealing with a sociopath - there's always a reason.

My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind.

Happy people have no history.

What you lack in one department, you make up for it in another

Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.

The first step to wisdom is to be sure one says and does what one believes.

I write about my life and my own experience, but I also write about things that I have no knowledge of whatsoever.

What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.