There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.

All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire.

A stale article, if you dip it in a good, warm, sunny smile, will go off better than a fresh one that you've scowled upon.

The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.

I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind for it.

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.

The day of individual happiness has passed

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo.

Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it.

Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root'.

A jug fills drop by drop.