Great men wait for the right moment to abandon caution. The rest of us abandon it when impatience becomes too much for us.

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.

Life is like a river—it keeps flowing, flowing, and flowing till it merges into the sea. Nothing can stop the flow of Life, but you can enjoy the Journey.

A tornado of thought is unleashed after each new insight. This in turn results in an earthquake of assumptions. These are natural disasters that re-shape the spirit.

Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar it never fails of doing justice upon itself for every guilty person is his own hangman.

I stand and listen to people speaking french in the stores and in the street. It's such a pert, crisp language, elegant as ruffling taffeta.

I lost my one true love. I started drinking.

If you're overfishing at the top of the food chain, and acidifying the ocean at the bottom, you're creating a squeeze that could conceivably collapse the whole system.

Masturbation is great for the right arm

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

Reading and thoughtfulness and openness are the best way, I should think, to begin to address the richness that is in each of us.

At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.