Time does not act on memory to soften the edges, blur the details; if anything, it sharpens them. Emotions may lose their acid outlines, but not places and people, not if you wish to retain them.

Istanbul ... the constant beating of the wave of the East against the rock of the West.

We only have one life to live, and must go on with it to the end, that if we feel it is meaningless, then we ourselves must give it meaning.

You don't have to be sincere yourself to recognize sincerity when you see it. Any more than you have to be insane to recognize insanity.

impulses sometimes have logical roots and ought to be given in to.

Possibilities swung from the ropes of his life like charms on a watch chain, golden.

martyrs are always uncomfortable people to live with.

... danger was always at its most lethal when disguised as respectability.

When you try to go back and watch improv on tape, it almost never feels as good as it did when a crowd was laughing at it.

[Science is] an imaginative adventure of the mind seeking truth in a world of mystery.

Your enemy is your own self in a different uniform.

Breaking Away' was a great experience. It's the kind of movie that engenders a lot of goodwill from people.

A comprehended God is no God at all!

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.

She said writting novels was like childbirth: if you truly remembered how awful it got, you'd never do it again.

JAQUES: Rosalind is your love's name? ORLANDO: Yes, just. JAQUES: I do not like her name. ORLANDO: There was no thought of pleasing you when she was christened.