“Ariadne made an impression on you, and that's great. But life is not literature. Sooner or later, the spell wears off, the romantic feelings disappear, and you're left watching somebody's body disi...”

“The importance of humor is primarily to puncture fixed ideasto make us step back and realize that our situation, whatever it may be, is, in the grand scheme of things, always contingent and arbitra...”

“The stories we read in books, what's presented to us as being interesting - they have very little to do with real life as it's lived today. I'm not talking about straight-up escapism, your vampires...”

“None of it made any difference. The hollow feeling refused to go away. The next days were very hard. I found myself in the grip of a crippling ennui. I was back at square one, but I couldnt bring m...”

“I saw myself as reviving a certain mode of life, a mode that had been almost lost: the contemplative life of the country gentleman, in harmony with his status and history. In Renaissance times they...”

“Mrs. P.? Oh no. Shes the help. Bosnian, you know. Or is it Serbian? An absolute treasure, anyway. As I always say to Bel, if theres one good thing to come out of all this fuss in the Balkans, its t...”

“You need to understand that you are not your appearance or your body”

“Women do not give a very favorable estimate of their appearance”

“It is complexes that prevent women with a good appearance from adequately assessing themselves”

“Creativity is the state of consciousness in which you enter into the treasury of your innermost being and bring the beauty into manifestation. (p.232)”

“Do you think I'm pretty?I think you're beautifulBeautiful?You are so beautiful, it hurts sometimes.”

“As if you were on fire from within.The moon lives in the lining of your skin.”

“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.”

“To love somebody is not just a strong feeling -- it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise," writes psychologist Erich Fromm. "If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the...”

“You must first of all think justly. Dont sit in judgment over others when you dont know the truth of the matter.”