“A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.”

“I believe it was Gayelord Hauser, the nutritionist, who said, 'You are what you eat,' but if you happen to be an intellectual, you are what you quote.”

“Of all the seven deadly sins, only Envy is no fun at all.”

“I am afraid I am one of those people who continues to read in the hope of sometime discovering in a book a single—and singular—piece of wisdom so penetrating, so soul stirring, so utterly applicable to my own life as to make all the bad books I have read seem well worth the countless hours spent on them. My guess is that this wisdom, if it ever arrives, will do so in the form of a generalization.”

“We use books like mirrors, gazing into them only to discover ourselves.”

“The reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely achieved; only death brings closure and then not always for those still living.”

“Not everyone strives to be fashionable. I don't, and I believe I succeed.”