There is such a thing as too much beauty in a woman and it is often a burden as crippling as homeliness and far more dangerous. It takes much luck and integrity to survive the gift of perfect beauty, and its impermanence is its most cunning betrayal.

(You) don't leave the chicken to watch the feed.

The water was pure and cold and came out of the Apennines tasting like snow melted in the hands of a pretty girl.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

South Carolina is not a state; it is a cult.

Anyone who knows me well must understand and be sympathetic to my genuine need to be my own greatest hero. It is not a flaw of character; it is a catastrophe.

I could bear the memory, but I could not bear the music that made the memory such a killing thing.