We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

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!

There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

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

Unless we insist that politics is imagination and mind, we will learn that imagination and mind are politics, and of a kind we will not like.

Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.