Minds are cluttered from the age of six with the values of others-values which bear little relation to their own private capacities, needs and desires.

The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality.

If American men are obsessed with money, American women are obsessed with weight. The men talk of gain, the women talk of loss, and I do not know which talk is the more boring.

the overwhelming majority of people who are engaged in the processes of thought and expression are Democrats because the essence of thought is exploration and diversity and change. It's impossible to have vision in art or government without risk, or the boldness and courage which produce risk. And this - in spite of what they call modern Republicanism - is the antithesis of true Republican thinking.

All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.

In our long and obsessive passion for youth, we have - more than any other modern society - avoided direct approach to age and to dying by denying them in word, in fact, and - above all - in worth.

You cannot know what you do not feel.