crawling about the floor like half-dead November flies is one thing, and dancing reels another.

I feel I must fight for [my music], because I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs; not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea.

The charms of seclusion are seldom combined with the conveniences of civilization.

when I came to know Greek art I instantly understood that excess and perfection are enemies; yet on the other hand this world and the millions of worlds around us live by fire ... !

acceptance is an art that must be mastered if we want to keep our friends for the span of life that remains to us, and presently step off the stage with our self-respect intact.

no one is more trustworthy than the repentant sinner who has been found out.

if you take passionate interest in a subject, it is hard not to believe yourself specially equipped for it.

I can imagine nothing more tiresome than always to speak of people as if they were listening at the door.

the majority of critical, and plenty of uncritical, readers find quotations a bore.

[On golf:] ... though aware I could never be more than a humble potterer, it was impossible to repress the wild upsurgings of hope known to all middle-aged beginners.

One of my relatives invented the sensory deprivation tank. Appropriately, most of my family has never seen or heard of him.

Sometimes your disappointments make you a stronger person for the future.

Nothing bubbled up from the depths. For once, the present was so alive and captivating that the past was not even an echo or a shadow-she was, in this moment, wiped clean.

There was both love and despair in his voice. He was truly handicapped when it came to emotions, and falling in love hadn't changed that.

One spares old people just as one spares children.

You wouldn't put your soul in a dishwasher!

Food is no longer sacred to us: in becoming too efficient we've changed its nature.

Women my age just don't turn me on. That's another problem with getting older. I took out an older woman the other night, and I mean old. I told her, Act your age. She died.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

Why didn't someone tell me that I can become a Christian and settle the doubts afterward?