Paul Topics

When I am writing a novel I must actually live the lives of my characters. If, for instance, my hero is a gambler on the French Riviera, I must make myself pack up and go to Cannes or Nice, willy-nilly, and there throw myself into the gay life of the gambling set until I really feel that I am paul De Lacroix, or Ed Whelen, or whatever my hero’s name is. Of course this runs into money, and I am quite likely to have to change my ideas about my hero entirely and make him a bum on a tramp steamer working his way back to America, or a young college boy out of funds who lives by his wits until his friends at home send him a hundred and ten dollars.
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)

Go, all of you poor people, in the name of God the Creator, and let him forever be your guide. And henceforth, do not be beguiled by these idle and useless pilgrimages. See to your families, and work, each one of you, in your vocation, raise your children, and live as the good Apostle paul teaches you.
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)

A process of genocide is being carried out before the eyes of the world.
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)