Black Swans: Stories

by Eve Babitz

I’m always amazed at how books find us at the time we need them, as if there’s some omniscient, benevolent librarian in the sky.

. I don’t believe in facing pain unless it’s the kind you like.”

It’s only temporary: you either die, or get better.

Anything difficult, as far as I’ve been able to determine, seems to work, and anything easy is just kidding yourself.

But to be corrupt, you must once have been innocent—and I guess some people never were.

“Can’t you see,” he said, “that life is too short to be miserable? You have to be with people who love you. The people who care about you. You are too fabulous, darling, to be miserable!”