I'm still an atheist, thank God.

Thank God, I am still an atheist.

You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all... Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it we are nothing.

Thank God I'm an atheist.

The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.

If the devil were to offer me a resurgence of what is commonly called virility, I'd decline. ''Just keep my liver and lungs in good working order,'' I'd reply, ''so I can go on drinking and smoking!''

Tobacco and alcohol, delicious fathers of abiding friendships and fertile reveries.