“

"Everything that's miserable in the world," Nick the dwarf once said to me, "is because of beauty."

"Not truth or goodness?" I'd asked.
"Oh, they help. But beauty is the culprit, the real principle of evil."
"Not wealth?"
"Money is beautiful."
"So is anything else you don't have enough of – food, water, screwing..."
"Exactly!" he announced, slamming his beer mug down so heavily on the tabletop that a dozen heads were turned in our direction. "Beauty, goddamn it!"
"What about a good-looking guy?"
"They're either bastards because they know they've got it made, or they're self-conscious because they know other guys hate their guts. Bastards are always hurting other people, and the self-conscious guys screw themselves up. Usually they go queer or something, all because of that goddamn beauty!"
"What about beautiful objects?"
"They make people steal, or feel bad because they can't get at them. Damn –!"
"Wait a minute," I said. "It's not an object's fault that it's beautiful, or the pretty people's fault that they're pretty. It just happens that way."
He shrugged.
"Fault? Who said anything about fault?"
"You were talking about evil. That implies guilt somewhere along the line."
"Then beauty is guilty," he said. "Goddamn it!"
"Beauty, as an abstract principle?"
"Yes."
"And in individual objects?"
"Yes."
"That's ridiculous! Guilt requires responsibility, some kind of intent –"
"Beauty's responsible!"
"Have another beer."
He did, and belched again.
"Take a look at that good-looking guy over at the bar," he said, "that guy trying to pick up the broad in the green dress. Somebody's going to bust him one in the nose sometime. It wouldn't have to happen if he was ugly."
Nick later proved his point by busting the guy one in the nose, because he'd called him Shorty.

”

"Attractiveness is common. But real intimacy is not." 

'"The full power of Kalkin?.. That has never been released... Not in all the ages of the world. Let them come against me now and the heavens will weep upon their bodies and the Vedra run the color of blood!.. Do you hear me? Do you hear me, gods? Come against me! I challenge you, here upon this field! Meet me with your strength, in this place!"'

'He spoke softly and without inflection:

"I shall tear these stars from out the heavens," he stated, "and hurl them in the faces of the gods, if this be necessary. I shall blaspheme in every Temple throughout the land. I shall take lives as a fisherman takes fish, by the net, if this be necessary. I shall mount me again up to the Celestial City, though every step be a flame or a naked sword and the way be guarded by tigers. One day will the gods look down from Heaven and see me upon the stair, bringing them the gift they fear most. That day will the new Yuga begin.

"But first I must meditate for a time..."'

"When God told us to love, He wasn't holding out a card on us; He meant it. Love little babies that always need changing and love strong, smelly men so that there will be more little babies to love - and in between go on loving because it's so good to love!"

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist - a master - and that is what Auguste Rodin was - can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is... and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be... and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart... no matter what the merciless hours have done to her."

"The reason that cliches become cliches is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication."