Everything should be understood, and anything can be transformed - that is the modern view.

It is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding; a bid to have the final word is inherent in all powerful phrase-making.

Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described.

Ours is a society in which secrets of private life that, formerly, you would have given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to get on a television show to reveal.

As one passion begins to fail it is necessary to form another, for the whole art of going through life tolerably is to keep oneself eager about anything.

I want to be able to be alone, to find it nourishing - not just a waiting.

When you are writing, you are - from society's point of view - only producing the first version which will then be processed and recycled.