Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.

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).

Violence is its own anesthetist. The numbness it induces feels very much like calm.

Italians' relationship to food is loving, informal, and gay.

Women's propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing.

Facts mean nothing to wounded feelings.

All our loves are contained in all our other loves.