It's what we call a dolce pazzia... a sweet madness. Once you feel it, you will never want to leave it.

When the old men fight, the young people die.

I did not know my soul until I saw it's reflection in your eyes.

By the time we left college, I had become my own image: a dandelion in the flower bed of society. Kinda cute, but still a weed.

She had died peacefully, in her sleep, after an evening of listening to all of her favorite Fred Astaire songs, one crackling record after another. Once the last chord of the last piece had died out, she had stood up and opened the French doors to the garden outside, perhaps waiting to breathe in the honeysuckle one more time.

But he is an Italian," was Umberto's sensible reply. "He doesn't care if you break some law a little bit, as long as you wear beautiful shoes. Are you wearing beautiful shoes? Are you wearing the shoes I gave you?...principessa?" I looked down at my flip-flops. "I guess I'm toast.

In many ways, a degree in the history of ideas is the ideal training for an aspiring writer.