They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain; And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt.
A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.
Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe. . . that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.
When the eye fails to find beauty-alias solace-it commands the body to create it, or, failing that, adjusts itself to perceive virtue in ugliness.
How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.
For darkness restores what light cannot repair.
The disaster. . . is what escapes the very possibility of experience—it is the limit of writing. This must be repeated: the disaster de-scribes.
People are like, 'What's Game of Thrones about?' I'm like, 'It's in the title. ' For real, this is a game for the Iron Throne. No matter what character you are, you're sucked into that at some point.
Sometimes art is just about getting a reaction, that's really the end-all be-all.
If you want to bless me you can bless my bottom, for it is sticking out of the hole.