If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?

If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.

We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.

We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love.

People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?