While reading writers of great formulatory power — Henry James, Santayana, Proust — I find I can scarcely get through a page without having to stop to record some lapidary sentence. Reading Henry James, for example, I have muttered to myself, "C’mon, Henry, turn down the brilliance a notch, so I can get some reading done." I may be one of a very small number of people who have developed writer’s cramp while reading.

Someone — Cyril Connolly? Ezra Pound? — once said that anything that can be read twice is literature; I would say that anything that bears saying twice is quotable.

Within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.

In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

Courage is nine-tenths context. What is courageous in one setting can be foolhardy in another and even cowardly in a third.

By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.

Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.