The suspense in a novel is not only in the reader, but in the novelist himself, who is intensely curious too about what will happen to the hero.

Be truthful... and pay attention. I would also recommend the avoidance of credit cards.

The things of this world reveal their essential absurdity when they are put in the Venetian context. In the unreal realm of the canals, as in a Swiftian Lilliput, the real world, with its contrivances, appears as a vast folly.

... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality.

When an American heiress wants to buy a man, she at once crosses the Atlantic. The only really materialistic people I have ever met have been Europeans.

On the wall of our life together hung a gun waiting to be fired in the final act.

If you want to be your own master ... always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it.