The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.

At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

On paper, being good sounds great but a lot depends on the atmosphere of the workplace or community we live in. We tend to become good or bad depending on the cues sent out within a particular space.

I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.

Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don't get on with machismo. I'm interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that's what we are.

For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.