The Frenchman Jean-PaulSartre ... had a dialectical mind good as a machine for cybernetics, immense in its way, he could peel a nuance like an onion, but he had no sense of evil, the anguish of God, and the possible existence of Satan.

Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.

A high church for the true mediocre.

Simple narcissism gives the power of beasts to politicians, professional wrestlers and female movie stars.

Prevarication, like honesty, is reflexive, and soon becomes a sturdy habit, as reliable as truth.

Boredom slays more of existence than war.

Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.