A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you can learn how...

The lesson is never learned—there will always be those who persist in seeking the Fountain of Youth, or at least delaying what is irrevocably ordained.

You can crab over the morning paper and kick the shins of the guy in the next seat at the movies and feel mean and discouraged and sneer at the politicians but there are a lot of nice people in the...

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights...

The knife is more dangerous than the hand and the knife can be in either hand.

Once they have slept together they will have to find something else to veil the enormous absurdity of their existence.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Life appears as a long nightmare in this reasoning, from which one can be freed through death, which would then be a kind of awakening. But awakening to what? That irresoluble moment of throwing...

The fiercest anger of all, the most incurable, Is that which rages in the place of dearest love.

That of dealing death, of loosing another man's soul and sending it down to hell. You want to savor it, to twist the blade deeper and pull the man's heart and guts out upon the iron point of your...

Everyone is an actor. In the end, everyone wants applause.

Denial is a critical part of the human coping mechanism. Without it, we would all wake up terrified every morning about all the ways we could die. Instead, our minds block out our existential fears by...

It is a fact verified and recorded in many histories that the soul capable of the greatest good is also capable of the greatest evil. Who is there more impious than a backsliding priest? Who more...

I see hundreds of men come by on the road and on the ranches with their bindles on their back and that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them. They come, and they quit and go on; and every...

He was wondering if there was some cryptic, cultish mark on his door that told all the crazy people he'd have trouble saying no.

Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.

I want to sleep with you. Now, tonight, and at any time you may care to call me. I want your naked body, your skin, your mouth, your hands... -I want you like an animal... or a whore.

If you don't have money, gossip isn't bad leverage. Even inside one's own family.

Bear gifts if you can't bear anything else.

It was a punishing whim on my part, a nasty, selfish twist of the knife.

he's always been moody. Even when he was a baby he was like a cat. All snuggly one second and then the next, he'd be looking at you like he had no idea who you were.

He exuded ambiguities she decided, that was his fascination. His mouth spoke; his eyes said something other: his smile belied everything... He played with the language of the Circle of Days like a...

Have you ever noticed I said how everyone says they want to be different, but as soon as they meet someone who really is different, they ostracize them?

He has tried to end his life twice. Once Archie brought him back. Now I have done the same. We have interfered in what doesn't concern us. He belongs to himself and is at his own disposal. Or else...

You know, when I was in Paris, seeing Linter for the first time, I was standing at the top of some steps in the courtyard where Linter's place was, and I looked across it and there was a little notice...

{...} she understood that nothing is less obvious in a man than that which seems unquestionable.

Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.

Particularly nauseous were the blank expressionless faces of people in trains and omnibuses; they seemed no more my fellow-creatures than dead bodies would be, so that I did not dare to travel unless...

Oh, people get used to so many things," said Vadesh, "if only they give them selves a chance.