The worse we treat people in this country, the more delicately we talk about them.

For Catholics before Vatican II, the land of the free was pre-eminently the land of Sister Says-except, of course, for Sister, for whom it was the land of Father Says.

Of course, history is only a muddle of facts and a fuddle of professors, and anyone who thinks it is one clear voice saying "Arise, sir Knight" deserves a life sentence in Camelot.

Saloons provide moments of genuine ecstasy - but only if your soul is at peace and the rest of your life bears contemplating. Otherwise, they are palaces of misery.

I picked up the writing on the very day he died. It was the only consolation I could find.

The only reason I didn't kill myself after I read the reviews of my first book was because we have two rivers in New York and I couldn't decide which one to jumo into.

The American male doesn't mature until he has exhausted all other possibilities.

Suicide is about life, being in fact the sincerest form of criticism life gets.

If the French were really intelligent, they'd speak English.

Mr Michener, as timeless as a stack of 'National Geographics,' is the ultimate Summer Writer. Just as one goes back to the cottage in Maine, so one goes back to one's Michener.

The actual Irish weather report is really a recording made in 1922, which no one has had occasion to change. "Scattered showers, periods of sunshine."

We will be victorious if we have not forgotten how to learn.

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.

To become self-educated you should condemn yourself for all those things that you would criticize others.

Horoscopes, like bad sitcoms, are created for people that I don't relate to.

There aren't that many people walking about who are a total class stereotype.

You just think lovely wonderful thoughts," Peter explained, "and they lift you up in the air.

The trick isn't so much creating the right thing; the trick is finding the right networks.

And don't forget, a prisoner's wife must always think good thoughts.

The only one you get even with is yourself.

The truly simple way of presenting Christianity is to do it.