For a Russian to be chivalrous with an American is a spiritual impossibility, a conradiction in terms.

I never knew a writer's wife who wasn't beautiful.

I have no culture, no humane harmony in my brains. I can't live without a culture anymore.

The name of the new religion, said Rumfoord, is The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. . . The two chief teachings of this religion are these: Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

Never take liquor into the bedroom. Don't stick anything in your ears. Be anything but an architect. Live in a nice country rather than a powerful one. Power makes everybody crazy. Get somebody to teach you to play a musical instrument.

George Bush and his gang imagine they are being political geniuses.

You are pooped and demoralised,” read Dwayne. “Why wouldn’t you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn’t meant to be reasonable.