Death is always there, just beneath the surface.
The wretchedness of failure is the great attraction of success.
Sometimes the only way to become grounded is to hit bottom.
The realism of failure, the romance of success.
Realism: the wealth of detail guarantees the truth of the tale.
The real reality is always just around the corner.
Realism absorbs the ideal by adding a few small imperfections. Example: it paints a few specks of mud on the white gown of the Lady in the Garden.
The facts, even the real ones, must be imagined before they can be stated.
In even the happiest love story, the World wins at last.
I was once in love with books. Now they go their way and I go mine.
Unlike life, when books become meaningless, they are making a point.
To remain mysterious, say little and do nothing.
Even a cow creates ambiguous signifiers. The moo of mystery.
The unknowable creates the greatest controversies.
Stutters and snorts are meaningful but not usually referential.
Your words and my words are the same, but not our meaning.
Creativity is not a substitute for competence.
Only those in comfortable circumstances think love is the most important thing.
Love sorrows are addictive as other sorrows are not.
When love and adventure are finished, it's nice to have getting and spending to fall back on.
All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.
Loving, not the beloved, is the joy of love. The beloved, knowing this, most resolutely declines to be grateful.
When love ends, the beloved is no longer standing on a pedestal, but in a hole.
Every lover's lament has an element of boasting.
People often are unsure whether or not they are in love, but they generally know whether or not they are having sex.
