I might become an ascetic, live in India. A little rice is about the best I can do now.

Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the Praetorian Guard ruled.

Between Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.

Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

Nothing is durable, I think anybody who thinks sex is durable is going to have a lot of grief.

When you control opinion, as corporate America controls opinion in the United States by owning the media, you can make the masses believe almost anything you want, and guide them as you please.