We are all ill; but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health.

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere.

The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.

It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief.

Unless we insist that politics is imagination and mind, we will learn that imagination and mind are politics, and of a kind we will not like.

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.

The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.

I'm just at the age when time speeds up in an odd way. Do you know what I mean? The winters come closer together and you learn to accept that you're not special anymore.

Behind an able man there are always other able men.

Past and to come seems best things present worst.

Do not do anything that anyone else can do readily.

The victory of liberalism enables them to sue their victors.

I have a fear of letting my mind wander. I'm afraid it might not come back.

There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray.

One man by delaying saved the state for us.

Evil can also be beautiful. The Coliseum in Rome, for example, a wonderful structure with an awful past. Just think about the bloody gladiator fights there.

Do you want me to call you Celery Stick instead of Cupcake or Honey-Pie? It just doesn’t inspire the same warm and fuzzy feelings.