Among adults – and among orphans – Wilbur Larch noted that delirious happiness was rare.

You can't say you're going to ban something in the name of good taste, because then you have directed someone to play the role of good-taste police. We - Americans - permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it.

You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother's hand, his fingers could see in the dark.

All I say is: Let us leave les folles alone; let's just leave them be. Don't judge them. You are not superior to them - don't put them down.

Human sexuality makes farcical our most serious intentions.

Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule.