Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in 19th-century France and England, or 20th-century Russia and America.

Lonely. I always thought loneliness meant alone, without people. It means something else.

Writers are interesting people, but often mean and petty.

as one grows older, one realizes how little one knows about any relationship, or even about oneself.

It was an unspoken pleasure, that having come together so many years, ruined so much and repaired a little, we had endured.

failure in the theater is more public, more brilliant, more unreal than in any other field.

People always sound so proud when they announce they know nothing of music.