But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life’s business.

Iconic Paris tells us: here are our three-star attractions, go thou and marvel. And so we gaze obediently at what we are told to gaze at, without exactly asking why.

Because love is the meeting point of truth and magic. Truth, as in photography; magic, as in ballooning.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

I don't believe in God, but I miss him.

History is the lies of the victors.