We'd been assured it wouldn't be painful, though she might experience 'discomfort,' a term beloved of the medical profession that seems to be a synonym for agony that isn't yours.

A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.

You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.

My own apathy is bone chilling.

In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

Funny how you dig yourself into a hole by the teaspoon.

It's far less important to me to be liked these days than to be understood.

But what's so great about being a perfectionist?... You do all this work, and then the stuff you've made just pisses you off.

Giving anyone anything takes courage, since so many presents backfire. A gift conspicuously at odds with your tastes serves only to betray that the benefactor has no earthly clue who you are.

Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether.

The Web, the great time-killer that had replaced conspicuously passive television with its seductive illusion of productivity.

I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought

You can rewire your brain and reinvent your life at any age

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.

Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.

Rhythm is best expressed in any swing directed at a cigar stump or a dandelion head.

And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

I take politics only medicinally, as a cure of occasional attacks of insomnia.

Sure, it was nice now, but eventually there would be running and screaming and blood on the floor.

How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government's Treasury Department!