Thunderstorms were rare in California, but when they came they were, like most things in California, larger than life.

fiction and lies are both works of creative art, and creation always reveals the creator.

Even a small, everyday lie is a clue to the personality and preoccupations of the liar, like a dream or any other confection of the mind, that is half-conscious and half-unconscious, as all creative acts must be.

Habit is far stronger than the lessons of experience.

Civilization is a fiction which becomes a fact only as long as everyone can believe in it. It is the cynic, rather than the rebel, who pulls down the whole flimsy structure periodically throughout history.

Were modern cities only beautiful after darkness hid everything but their lights?

To the Latin, cynicism and middle age are synonymous. Look at our politicians - they move through their careers from left to center to right, like the hands of a clock.