The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be.

But maybe half a lie is worse than a real lie.

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 people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier.

It doesn't pay well to fight for what we believe in.

Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.

I'm good at embroidery. It's what I always wanted to do.... Yep, instead of whoring, I just wanted to do fancy embroidery.