Unless I specifically inform you otherwise, I'm always smoking another cigarette.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

You have to love someone completely to be willing to destroy them.

Don't beg a man to keep you. If he isn't sure you are the right one make the decision for yourself. You deserve better than maybe.

One's style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.

What I like is when you can hear the heart and soul of music and can feel the energy coming out of it, because that's what it's like when you drive.

We're out of cocktail olives, it's a tragedy of historic proportions, but we're coping because we're Americans.

I was not supposed to be in any way a liberated person. I was a female born in the '40s in a patriarchal family; I was supposed to marry and make everyone around me happy.

Simplicity of life is an essential for greatness of life.

To be religious is to be sensitive to reality.

Don't hustle old people.

Two of an actress's greatest assets are love and pain. A great actress, even a good actress, must have plenty of both in her life.