Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name.

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.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

When I harvest my life right up to the edges, I have collected every last kernel of blessing.

Diplomacy without arms is like a concert without a score

Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don’t have anything worth giving.

Darkness does not leave without the light to chase it away. You need to have spiritual strength to pull you through the rough times.

A story is a wondrous invention.

Life swarms with innocent monsters.

This flour of wifly patience.

I've always had an aversion to looking sexy, but I've grown out of it.

The closeness of reality and the distance of myth, because if there is no distance you aren't amazed, and if there is no closeness you aren't moved.