Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. — John Updike

The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever.

To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given.

Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being “somebody,” to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen.