The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.

Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.

What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel.

Happiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried.

Her lie was symptomatic of a certain pride she took in mocking the romantic, in being unsentimental, matter-of-fact, stoic; yet at heart she was the oppo site: idealistic, dreamy, giving, and deeply attached to everything she liked verbally to dismiss as "mushy.

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.