Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

Modern neurosis began with the discoveries of Copernicus. Science made men feel small by showing him that the earth was not the center of the universe.

Yet friendship, I believe, is essential to intellectuals. It is probably the growth hormone the mind requires as it begins its activity of producing and exchanging ideas. You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk. In the course of my history, not love or marriage so much as friendship has promoted growth.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

The consumer today is the victim of the manufacturer who launches on him a regiment of products for which he must make room in his soul.

The relation between life and literature - a final antimony - is one of mutual plagiarism.

I was going to get myself recognized at any price. If I could not win fame by goodness, I was ready to do it by badness.