Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft

Every day each of us wakes up, reaches into drawers and closets, pulls out a costume for the day and proceeds to dress in a style that can only be called preposterous.

A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

Don't waste your time on jealousy.

Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.