To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.

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 you go through deep waters, I will be with you.

Think not because no man sees such things will remain unseen.

Ten-year-old boys move differently than middle-aged women, who move differently than athletic guys, who move differently than government bureaucrats.

Lord, heap miseries upon us yet entwine our arts with laughters low.

The thing I don't like on television is when somebody does something that makes absolutely no sense just for the shock of it.

Life doesn't move in straight lines, and neither does a good conversation.

We would normally play it to Cynthia or whoever was around

As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others - what and whom we can work with, and how - becomes wider.

Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated.