"I see the world in very fluid, contradictory, emerging, interconnected terms, and with that kind of circuitry I just don't feel the need to say what is going to happen or will not happen."

"Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh."

"Public display of mourning is no longer made by people of fashion, although some flashier kinds of widows may insist on sleeping with only black men during the first year after the death."

"I am loving before I am patriotic: I am human before I am American."

"If you listened hard enough the first time, you might have heard what I meant to say."

"Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected."

"The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free."

"Many things that I am experiencing I already remember."

"Our friendships are precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life;and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part is sunshine."

"What is a kiss? Why this, as some approve: The sure, sweet cement, glue, and lime of love."

"Genius might well be defined as the ability to makes a platitude sound as though it were an original remark."

"I don't think you're a very good friend if you're always being supportive. You also have to add criticism."