Beauty is lyrical. Ugliness is elegiac.

New York is full of abandoned churches. A Godless city, but full of superstitions on every subject--art, money, sex, food, health.

In adding up her assets, the ambitious lady calculated the worth of her beautiful body as coldly as everything else.

The sage belongs to the same obsolete repertory as the virtuous maiden and the enlightened monarch.

If I could do my life over, I would try to cleanse at least my pleasures of self-pity.

Indifference creates an artificial peace.

The beloved is the ultimate fetish.