I don’t like to read nonfiction. To me, fact is something I can look up.
My dream writing room would be the Imperial Library in Vienna.
Not writing is probably the most exhausting profession I’ve ever encountered.
Take away a man’s actual sense of manhood – which is conventionally based on the ability to work, to earn money, to be self-sufficient, to provide for children – and you’ve got to give them something else. And they did.
If I lived in another country, like a country that was, say, an enemy of the United States, I would be more amused than I am.
Will power is not telling anybody you quit smoking.
I’m sure that being sober all these years accounts for my ill humor.
I’m a horrible girlfriend. I always was. I’m great at the beginning, because I can be very romantic.
All style is personal – that’s what distinguishes it from fashion.
There are certain relationships I think I’m great at: I’m the world’s greatest daughter. I’m a great relative. I believe I’m a great friend.
You can be nasty when you are young, but you really have to be older to achieve bitterness.
Do not have your child’s hair cut by a real hairdresser in a real hairdressing salon. He is, at this point, far too short to be exposed to contempt.
If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum.
The good thing about being in someone else’s apartment is it’s so much easier to leave than it is to get someone out.
Marriage entitles women to the protection of a strong man who will steady the stepladder while they paint the kitchen ceiling.
I am alternately very gregarious – very sociable – and then very solitary.
Middle class was defined by having certain values and only a certain amount of money. But this new middle class seems to have absolutely no values and an unlimited amount of money.
When I’m supposed to be writing I clean my apartment, take my clothes to the laundry, get organized, make lists, do the dishes. I would never do a dish unless I had to write.
I hate academic mysteries. As soon as I come across the word ‘don’ and it’s not someone’s first name, I close the book.
Anti-smoking sentiment has replaced middle-class morality entirely. The smoker has taken the place of the homosexual. Today you hear people say things about smokers that used to be said about homosexuals – they pollute the environment; you don’t want them around your children...