People are good or half good or a quarter good, and it changes all the time- but even on the best day nobody's perfect.

She was forever tilted sideways by the notion that pain was inevitable, chance was cruel, and all human ingenuity should go towards the making of a good cup of tea.

Even if you're going to die, you might as well die pretty.

Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

He said to me once that most of the time people use the word love as just another way to show off they're hungry. The way he said it went something like: Glorify their appetites.

I'm only telling you on the truth," he said. "If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it.

We shape ourselves by our imaginative reach.