Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.

Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.

The famous are balloons far up in the sky, to be envied for their quiet freedom or shot down as enemies.

Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.

Nevertheless, one learned very early that books had to be respected; they were all putative Bibles and to some small degree had a share in holiness.

Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.

Memory inevitably romanticizes, pressing reality to recede like pain.