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

Always seek the general and never quite trust it.

I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.

No one has really ever defined what a friend is.

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.

Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.

I know how deeply slothful I am.