Civilization is the mastery of violence, the triumph, constantly challenged, over the aggressive nature of the primate. For primates we have been and primates we shall remain, however often we learn to find joy in a camellia on moss. This is the very purpose of education.

How to measure a life's worth? The important thing, said Paloma one day, is not the fact of dying, it is what you are doing in the moment of your death.

In the end, I wonder if the true movement of the world might not be a voice raised in song.

boredom was born on a day of uniformity.

Music plays a huge role in my life. It is music that helps me to endure ... well ... everything there is to endure.

..if you dread tomorrow, it's because you don't know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it's a lost cause anyway because tomorrow always ends up becoming today, don't you see?

What is an aristocrat? A woman who is never sullied by vulgarity, although she may be surrounded by it.