I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.

He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls, but these are the exact women who will turn the knife into you right in front of the crowd. Of course, I expect this, but the knife still cuts.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.

Wives are people who feel they don’t dance enough.

SPAM is taking e-mail, which is a wonderful tool, and exploiting the idea that it’s very inexpensive to send mail.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

Any man who doesn’t love his mama can’t be no friend of mine.

I think humans are just hard-wired to process people’s faces and understand meaning and expression at such a more granular level than other types of communication.

The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

I don’t like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

People say that about me, that I apparently buy houses near every boy I like – that’s a thing that I apparently do. If I like you I will apparently buy up the real-estate market just to freak you out so you leave me.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Men’s vows are women’s traitors!

There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

One must steer, not talk.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

If someone has a really great boyfriend or career, I think, it’s cool that happens.

My songs have always been frustrating themes, relationships that I’ve had. And now that I’m in love, I expect it to be really happy, or at least there won’t be half as much anger as there was.

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.

‚The Story of Us‘ is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other. I just wanted to say to him, ‚Is this killing you? Because it’s killing me.‘ But I didn’t. Because I couldn’t. Because we both had these silent shields up.

Because of a great love, one is courageous.

There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.

I think, a lot of times when you meet someone, you feel like you need to appear like you’re not interested in them so that they’ll be more interested in you. But what happens when you start showing him that you actually like him? What’s he gonna do then? Play the tape forward; how do you keep a guy like that? I don’t want to sign up for that.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.