By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.

By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.

I know how deeply slothful I am.

We know the ideal isn't where the action is.

Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.

My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.

Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.

I am the heterosexual Truman Capote.

I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.

I think the story is my form.

I am married to someone I love.

Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.

I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.

I am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me.

One of the pleasures of being a Jew, I don't have to tell you, it allows you anti-Semitism.

The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.

In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

The decisive moment in the defeat of upper class, capital-S, Society may have come when, in newspapers all over the nation, what used to be call the Society page was replaced by the Style section.

I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks.

One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes to the mail, I feel it is better to receive than to give.

I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.

No one has really ever defined what a friend is.

I should prefer to die laughing, and, on more than one occasion, thought I might.

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.

A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.

The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: The true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.

The reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely achieved; only death brings closure and then not always for those still living.

Snobbishness is the desire for what divides men and the inability to value what unites them.

When I tested for Billy Budd, I had that kind of confidence that comes with the certainty that you're not going to get something. I was very rough around the edges.

Confidence comes from hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.

By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.

If you improve a teacher's self-esteem, confidence, communication skills or stress levels, you improve that teacher's overall effectiveness across the curriculum.

Any new producer starting up is to get investors' confidence. Investors are still very very wary of anything to do with the arts world.

A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence.

False shame accompanies a man that is poor, shame that either harms a man greatly or profits him; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

As a scouting department, with the confidence we have in our player development, if a guy has the potential that we think they have and the makeup and they stay healthy, we think they will be a productive Major Leaguer. We take a lot of pride in that.

Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.

I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan.

Well, I am a Republican, and I would run as a Republican. And I have a lot of confidence in the Republican Party. I don't have a lot of confidence in the president. I think what's happening to this country is unbelievably bad. We're no longer a respected country.

I think it is important to maintain a sense of self and confidence, not letting either falter for the sake of a particular part or project, no matter how great it might be.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

We were given clear concrete tools. The course did a great job demystifying the art of fiction writing and fostering confidence. The instructor brought complex concepts down to earth. I will miss coming here every week.

Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.

Confidence in golf means being able to concentrate on the problem at hand with no outside interference.

It is obvious that putting the Arab-Israeli dispute on a resolution track would be an important element of overcoming the confidence problem in the region.

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.

The notion of a universality of human experience is a confidence trick and the notion of a universality of female experience is a clever confidence trick.

My friend made me a leather dress for the MTV awards. It gives you confidence, wearing something you love.