“There was always another side to a joke, the side of the victim.”

He entered the territory of lies without a passport for return.

Pity is cruel. Pity destroys.

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.

In a mad world it always seems simpler to obey.

It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death: I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.

God save us always,’ I said ‘from the innocent and the good.

The hands of the guilty don’t necessarily tremble; only in stories does a dropped glass betray agitation. Tension is more often shown in the studied action.

We can love with our minds, but can we love only with our minds? Love extends itself all the time, so that we can love even with our senseless nails: we love even with our clothes, so that a sleeve can feel a sleeve.

You needn’t be so scared. Love doesn’t end. Just because we don’t see each other.

It’s a good world if you don’t weaken.

As long as one suffers one lives.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

All good novelists have bad memories.

When we are not sure, we are alive.

Politics, war, marriage, crime, adultery. Everything that exists in the world has something to do with money.

Beauty is like success: we can’t love it for long.

Every Joke is a Tiny Revolution.

Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.

There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.

When you’re old enough to write a book for children, by then you’ll have become a grown up and have lost all your jokeyness. Unless you’re an undeveloped adult and still have an enormous amount of childishness in you.

I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb – and I’m not blonde either.

The happiness and the joy that I see in the eyes of the children. They saved my life so I want to, give it back. I’m not joking.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.

When in doubt, go for the dick joke.