Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.

The very beginning of Genesis tells us that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse.

Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality.

She regarded books as the emblems of secret brotherhood. A man with this sort of library couldn't possibly hurt her.

There are things that can be accomplished only by violence. Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself? To what degree of distortion does a beloved person still remain a beloved person? For how long does a cherished face growing remote through illness, through madness, through hatred, through death still remain recognizable? Where is the border beyond which a self ceases to be a self?

No matter how much we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition.