Our physical unity has gone far ahead of our moral unity.
Killing is like riding, you see. One never really loses the knack.
My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain. . . For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.
Night after night the nightingale came to beg for divine love, but though the rose trembled at the sound of his voice, her petals remained closed to him. . . Flower and bird, two species never meant to mate. Yet at length the rose overcame her fear and from that single, forbidden union was born the red rose that Allah never intended the world to know.
All beauty must have its imperfections, all happiness its share of sorrow.
In point of fact I was a perfectly devoted and dutiful little Catholic—until the day I learned that animals have no souls.
Happiness is like the first blissful intoxication of morphine. It doesn't last very long.
A novel is a daily labor over a period of years. A novel is a job. But a story can be like a mad, lovely visitor, with whom you spend a rather exciting weekend.
Living jewels dropped unstained from heaven.
Typically, when you're with your friends, premises are coming up left and right. But when you're on stage, you must create the premise. So you have to create the premise, paint the picture and then deliver the punch line.
I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.