Immature ists imitate. Mature ists steal.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

This desire to fashion, to shape, a self and a life has all but gone from a contemporary culture whose emphasis, paradoxically enough, is so much on self.

The diminution of the reality of class, however socially desirable in many respects, seems to have the practical effect of diminishing our ability to see people in their difference and specialness.

Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader--it is never quite oneself. 2) I usually hate the sight of my handwriting--it lives too much and I dislike its life--I mean by "lives," of course, betrays too much!

The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.