Trust, which is a virtue, is also a habit, like prayer. It requires exercise. And just as no one can run five miles a day and cede the cardiovascular effects to someone else, no one can trust for us.

Passion kept one fully in the present, so that time became a series of mutually exclusive 'nows.'

Though we are made of memories, we live only in the here and now.

It is essential not only to the souls of painters and poets, who thrive in solitude, but to the rest of us, too--individuals whose canvas is our lives.

It isn't often that Aunt Dahlia lets her angry passions rise, but when she does, strong men climb trees and pull them up after them.

Libraries are brothels for the mind. Which means that librarians are the madams, greeting punters, understanding their strange tastes and needs, and pimping their books.

I was a sad kid.

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.

A jug fills drop by drop.

Undoubtedly we render our consciences callous by evil indulgences; but we cannot entirely subdue that still, small voice.

And it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families.

I think the issue that concerns us is certainly regaining stability, but issues of human rights are an integral part of our reform policies, of our new constitution.

I think my way of being "funny" is just saying things that people think but have learned not to say, whereas, I haven't learned not to say them.