“Charisma is a mysterious and powerful thing. I have it in limited supply, and that which I do have functions under highly specialized conditions.”

“She sees now that the problem of the girl will never be solved, not as long as people have the capacity to reproduce themselves. Family is the problem that recurs.”

“...in seduction, as in all forms of marketing, form superseds content.”

“... for what is love, if not the willingness to repeat oneself?”

“Part of what attracts us to artists is their otherness, their refusal to conform, their big middle finger stuck up in the face of Society, such that their very a- or immorality is what makes their art artistic rather than academic.”

“I saw this cartoon in the paper, once. That Viking, Hagar the Horrible? He’s standing on the mountaintop, holding his hands to the heavens, shouting “Why me?” And down from the heavens comes the answer: “Why not?” Maybe that’s the ultimate truth; what right to do I have to expect a smooth ride?”

“His experience and training should have taught him that families are the cauldrons in which violence is brewed. (144)”