The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.

You took the best, so why not take the rest?

Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

It is hard for anyone under twenty to realise that death has already assigned them a number, which is going to come up one day.

People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.

Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.