“I longed for literary celebrity even as I saw with my own eyes how lit...” — Edmund White Quote

I longed for literary celebrity even as I saw with my own eyes how little happiness it brought.

Paris can be like the land of the Lotus-Eaters. You can't leave.

Some writers are so enthralled by ideas (one thinks of Doris Lessing) that their characters become debaters, and their fables approach allegory.

I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.

I've accompanied several dying people on their travels, and the desert seems to be a favored destination. It is very hot and dry and lyrical in its own way.

Happiness is not found in chasing the next moment but in appreciating the one you are living. Life’s greatest joy is not in reaching the destination, but in learning to dance through the journey.

A man is destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness. No amount of economic growth can compensate for such losses.

Money is time. With money I buy for cheerful use the hours which otherwise would not in any sense be mine; nay, which would make me their miserable bondsman.

All happiness depends on courage and work.