Desire is one of the burning experiences of human life.

...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate.

But keeping secrets is a discipline. I never use to think of myself as a good liar, but after having had some practice I had adopted the prevaricator's credo that one doesn't so much fabricate a lie as marry it. A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help. By contrast, my lie needed me as much as I needed it, and so demanded the constancy of wedlock: Till death do us part.

Change is like that: you are no longer where you were; you are not yet where you will get; you are nowhere exactly.

I am in flight from my story every day, and it dogs me like a faithful stray.

...whenever a woman describes a man as sweet, the dalliance is doomed.

One of my problems with terrorism is that it's self-evidently bad. The main thing that makes it complicated is the fact that it works. When you go at it with a moral hammer, it's really, really bad. It's so bad you wouldn't believe it because you don't accomplish anything. I think the one thing terrorists themselves are vulnerable to is mockery. It's an excellent weapon.