What pursuit is more elegant than that of collecting the ignominies of our nature and transfixing them for show, each on the bright pin of a polished phrase?

The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.

Don't tell friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you.

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood.

Eat with the rich, but go to the play with the poor, who are capable of joy.

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste.

What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.

Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches.

I don’t know about birds nor do I know the history of fire. But I believe that my solitude should have wings

we are not here just because we have nowhere else; we need nowhere else, because we have the Institute, and those who are in it are our family.

One of my first big shows, I opened up for Chris Brown; I was about 10 years old, and Chris Brown was just big; he still is one of my idols now.

I do not pretend that all that white men do is properly Christianized.

Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

I just think the Internet has made us ruder.

I feel there is no substitute for going out to the movies. There is nothing like it.

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

Just call me black, if you want to call me anything.