There is no limit to desire but desire's needs.

Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see.

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

What art ought to do is tell stories which are moment-by-moment wonderful, which are true to human experience, and which in no way explain human experience.

The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.

Art, of course, is a way of thinking, a way of mining reality.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.

When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.

One of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.

A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.

There have been a lot of changes [in the fashion industry], of course. You just have to accept it and be strong.

Even secular humanism has great spiritual resources; it is almost like a religion to me.

I usually say I write for the smartest, cleverest, wittiest audience I know, and that's me.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

Give yourself room to make mistakes because you're human. We've got to make mistakes, and allow ourselves to make those mistakes.

Sophia Loren is the embodiment of what a woman should be -- the epitome of femaleness. Most of the young people today are just ironing boards.

You keep talking like that, Vane, and I might be forced to keep you.” “You keep looking at me like that, and I just might let you.

You have brought hope to those who have none

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.