Perhaps the comparison is closer to the Chinese cook who leaves hardly any part of a duck unserved. |
Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil --or else an absolute ignorance. |
Reality in our century is not something to be faced. |
Sentimentality--that's what we call the sentiment we don't share. |
So many of his prayers had remained unanswered that he had hopes that this one prayer of his had lodged all the time like wax in the Eternal ear. |
So much of life [is] a putting-off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing [is] ever lost by delay. |
Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline. |
That whisky priest, I wish we had never had him in the house. |
The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn. |
The End of the Affair, |
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see -- every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. |
The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him. |
The truth has never been of any real value to any human being - it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths. |
They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness. |
Those who marry God can become domesticated too / it's just as hum-drum a marriage as all the others. The word ''Love'' means a formal touch of the lips as in the ceremony of the Mass, and ''Ave Maria '' like ''dearest'' is a phrase to open a letter. This marriage like the world's marriages was held together by habits and tastes shared in common between God and themselves / it was God's taste to be worshipped and their taste to worship, but only at stated hours like a suburban embrace on a Saturday night. |