There are worlds beyond anything you can imagine; there are joys beyond anything you have experienced. There are ecstasies that are undreamed of, I assure you.
A woman is at her greatest peril in the presence of a beautiful man.
If he wants meaning-the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life-a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain.
Unhappiness is caused when we cannot let go of our memories.
A woman's love for a man is half animal passion and half hate. The more a woman loves a man, the more she hates him.
But there's the rub. The present can never deliver one thing: meaning. The way of happiness and meaning are not the same. To find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only live for the moment. But if he wants meaning--the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life--a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them.
Disgust is so reassuring; it feels like a moral proof.
Writing Part of the Scenery has been a very different experience. I have been reminded of people and events, real and imaginary which have been part of my life. This book is a celebration of the land which means so much to me.
Metaphorically these essays move as a quiet but observant coast-guard cutter among the rocks and islands up and down the littoral of our life.
Eugene O'Neil created an American theater, and Tennessee Williams taught it how to sing.
The woman sees, I suppose, and the man does not.