the islands of Italy combine all the elements - fire, water, earth, and air - and that is irresistible.

my love of water ... is mingled with and almost indistinguishable from a fear of water (I can float in a vertical position - I enter a fugue state - but I cannot bear to bury my face in water).

There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships.

it's perfectly possible to hate one's fat and to love one's body at the same time.

Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.

truth ... is the first casualty of tyranny.

One can be tired of Rome after three weeks and feel one has exhausted it; after three months one feels that one has not even scratched the surface of Rome; and after six months one wishes never to leave it.