Weakness is a better teacher than strength. Weakness must learn to understand the obstacles that strength brushes aside.

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.

Knowledge may be power, but cake has great bargaining properties

Almost everything a leader fails to achieve is anything he fails to try. What is not attempted is what is difficult to do.

The wounding becomes sacred when we are willing to release our old stories and to become the vehicles through which the new story may emerge into time.

They'll always be an England, even if it's in Hollywood.

Temptation can be defined as an inducement to do evil. Three powerful forces work together to ruin a believer's character and witness: Satan, the world system, and our own lustful "flesh" tendencies.

My whole goal is to keep my spirit intact. If that doesn't happen, none of this is worth it.

I always call Billy Elliot a fantasy autobiography because I never wanted to be a dancer, but I got a lot of stick from the other kids about wanting to be a writer and being interested in drama.

The authority of example and considerations of character, unlike pudding, are not whipped up in an instant.

If you put on weight it's not by chance. You put on weight because you eat compulsively.

Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.