At first, there is something you expect of life. Later, there is what life expects of you. By the time you realize these are the same, it can be too late for expectations. What we are being, not what we are to be. They are the same thing.

What you fear most will happen to you - that is the law.

Did you ever notice how easy it is to forgive a person any number of faults for one endearing characteristic, for a certain style, or some commitment to life - while someone with many good qualities is insupportable for a single defect if it happens to be a boring one?

When you realize someone is trying to hurt you, it hurts less." "Unless you love them.

Italians are never punctual; the café, the convenient place to wait, absolves them from that. There is no question of hanging about, no looking lost and unwanted or even disreputable, as there is in hotel lobbies or the foyers of restaurants. One just sits and enjoys the scene, and waits.

I have a superstition that if I talk about plot, it's like letting sand out of a hole in the bottom of a bag.

Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization.