it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one's stomach than of one's nation

You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so that I will not hate you.

You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.

And as we watched, the Tsar of Death lifted up his eyelids like skirts and began to dance in the streets of Leningrad.

Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye.

Men die. It's practically what they're for.

First, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death, salt, night, birds and the length of an hour.

In both marriage and war you must cut up the things people say like a cake and eat only what you can stomach.

No, not like this, when I have not seen you without your skin on, when I know nothing, when I am not safe. Not you, whose name all my nightmares know.

I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.

Let the meek have the kingdom of heaven. The strong shall rule on earth.

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door and open it, stop waiting around for someone to give it to you

The day I stop feeling the pressure and I'm just enjoying myself and taking it easy is when I'm 35, asking for a wild card and playing mixed doubles with Arnaud Clement.

A world without delight and without affection is a world destitute of value.

No matter how thoroughly a person may have learned the Greek alphabet, he will never be in a condition to repeat it backwards without further training.

Most of us are pretty good at keeping promises to others and pretty bad at keeping promises to ourselves.

I have two false hips, a wired-up right knee, two crushed discs and scoliosis. If I don't dance, I seize up.

Kafka truly illustrates the way the environment oppresses the individual. He shows how the unconscious controls our lives.

I could get an audience into my world and if you can do that, they'll go with you not all the way, but a lot of the way.

My heart broke open and history fell in.