Confidence, to my way of thinking, generally is all the magic needed to work miracles.

[On her morphine addiction:] I was meant to 'taper off.' At times I felt such pains as must afflict a creature while a bigger beast eats and claws at its middle. God-awful things were hiding underneath my bed, and it was no use telling me they were not there - I knew they were, and felt their dreadful ever-changing shapes.

a lady could do, so I was told, just about nothing that she might want to do except attend all parties.

It seems to me that even the least of the human race is touched with genius when mad with love.

The one continuing problem in my life has always had the shape of just one question: What amusing thing can I do next?

Power is a test - the test - of character.

I was becoming more cunning than an animal in hiding my supply of morphine. A squirrel saving nuts is limited by its undeveloped imagination ... but I was not so handicapped. A squirrel, for example, is debarred from sending money to some greedy doctor or druggist and making arrangements to have a bit of powder sent each day by mail.