There are all sorts of books offering advice on how to deal with life-threatening situations, but where's the advice on dealing with embarrassing ones?

Life is short. If you doubt me, ask a butterfly. Their average life span is a mere five to fourteen days.

You know, it's hard work to write a book. I can't tell you how many times I really get going on an idea, then my quill breaks. Or I spill ink all over my writing tunic.

When I look back on the stuff I used to wear, I wonder why somebody didn't try to stop me. Just a friendly warning, "You may regret this, " would have been fine.

A three-quarter moon, glowering bone, with a hint of something bruised, battered, scarred. The moon has endured more than anybody can know.

No matter how well things are going, failure and disaster are just around the corner. So celebrate the good, but be ready for the bad.

Real art is illumination, it adds stature to life.

That is how we lived, happily and without hope. I was very young then, and I did not miss having a future because I did not know I was entitled to one.

Beauty without the beloved is a like a sword through the heart.

No one can hand you anything as a dancer. You have to earn it.

I don't do any vulgar movements.

Freedom is meaningless if people cannot put food in their stomachs, if they can have no shelter, if illiteracy and disease continue to dog them.

Whether or not you're aware of it or not, you're taking the information you get from watching TV and putting it in your brain.

I have rules for life, but not for love. If I think too hard about a relationship, I'll talk myself out of it