Talent is more erotic when it's wasted.

It's impossible to write about the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath without taking note of twenty-five years of paranoia which has collected around that event.

Why is it so hard to be serious, so easy to be too serious?

The cheesecake was smooth and lush, with the personality of a warm and well-to-do uncle who knows a hundred dirty jokes and will die of sexual exertions in the arms of his mistress.

There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.

Doesn't seem quite real. It's not meaningful. I can't quite imagine myself being 73. That's the age my father was! [Laughter.] How can I be his age? It's weird.

There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time. Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist? (155)