He feared that by leaving her he would ruin her life – so he stayed, and did just that.
It follows that the balance we approve of in architecture, and which we anoint with the word ‘beautiful’, alludes to a state that, on a psychological level, we can describe as mental health or happiness. Like buildings, we, too, contain opposites which can be more or less successfully handled.
Artistic talent is like a brilliant firework which streaks across a pitch-black night, inspiring awe among onlookers but extinguishing itself in seconds, leaving behind only darkness and longing.
Nothing satisfies the man who is not satisfied with a little.
Most business meetings involve one party elaborately suppressing a wish to shout at the other: ‘just give us the money’.
Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.
Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don’t get on with machismo. I’m interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that’s what we are.
There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.
One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.
Don’t despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don’t – surrender to events with hope.
Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone – and finding that that’s ok with them.
The only way to be happy is to realise how much depends on how you look at things.
A good half of the art of living is resilience.
The only people we can think of as normal are those we don’t yet know very well.
Most of us still caged within careers chosen for us by our not entirely worldly 18-22 year old selves.
The more closely we analyze what we consider ‘sexy,’ the more clearly we will understand that eroticism is the feeling of excitement we experience at finding another human being who shares our values and our sense of the meaning of existence.
Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.
Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one’s own ambitions.
As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.