“Maybe being married is talking to oneself with one's other self listening.”

“Writing poetry is talking to oneself; yet it is a mode of talking to oneself in which the self disappears; and the product's something that, though it may not be for everybody, is about everybody.”

“In a world of beings who don't exist, who self-destruct and erase themselves, perhaps one should make a valiant effort to at least draw oneself. Maybe that's where all the sex comes from- to feel real.”

“In a world full of danger, to be a potentially seeable object is to be constantly exposed to danger. Self-consciousness, then, may be the apprehensive awareness of oneself as potentially exposed to danger by the simple fact of being visible to others. The obvious defence against such a danger is to make oneself invisible in one way or another.”

“To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility . . .”

“I don't see how being married could be any worse than listening to you talk for twenty years, but that still ain't much of a recommendation for it.”