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

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.
Joseph Epstein

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

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

I am married to someone I love.
Joseph Epstein

I am the heterosexual Truman Capote.
Joseph Epstein

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.
Joseph Epstein

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

I know how deeply slothful I am.
Joseph Epstein

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.
Joseph Epstein


I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.
Joseph Epstein

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

I think the story is my form.
Joseph Epstein

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

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.
Joseph Epstein

No one has really ever defined what a friend is.
Joseph Epstein

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

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

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

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.
Joseph Epstein