There's a time in life when everything becomes ex — ex-athlete, ex-president, expatriate, x-ray. - James Salter

Art, in a sense, is life brought to a standstill, rescued from time. The secret of making it is simple: discard everything that is good enough.

There is no happiness like this: quiet mornings, light from the river, the weekend ahead. They lived a Russian life, a rich life, interwoven, in which the misfortune of one would stagger them all. It was a garment, this life. Its beauty outside, its warmth within.

I'm bored with happy couples. I don't believe in them. They're false. They're deceiving themselves.