I don't want to see you. I don't like you. I don't like your face. You look like an insufferable egotist. You're impertinent. You're too sure of yourself. Twenty years ago I would have punched your face with the greatest of pleasure.

My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.

You don't love causes. You don't love everybody indiscriminately. You love only those who deserve it.

What do I "think" of President Reagan? The best answer to give would be: I don't think of him. And the more I see, the less I think.

Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.

We are on strike, we, the men of the mind. We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.

She thought: at this moment, the glass stem between his fingers feels just like the one between mine. We have this much in common.