The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.

People have a right to be shocked; the mention of unmentionable things is a kind of participation in them.

Only among people who think no evil can Evil monstrously flourish.

All our lives we are putting pennies — our most golden pennies — into penny-in-the-slot machines that are almost always empty.

How often my soul visits the National Gallery, and how seldom

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection -even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano -is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

All mirrors are magical mirrors, and we never see our faces in them.