Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison More Quotes by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison More Quotes From Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Violence is its own anesthetist. The numbness it induces feels very much like calm. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison calm numbness violence Italians' relationship to food is loving, informal, and gay. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison gay Italy offers one the most priceless of all one's possessions - one's own soul. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison priceless possession soul One feels a quickening of the pulse when one crosses a border. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison pulse borders travel If there is one lesson Rome teaches, it is that matter is good; in Rome the holy and the homely rise and converge. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison rome lessons matter One can be tired of Rome after three weeks and feel one has exhausted it; after three months one feels that one has not even scratched the surface of Rome; and after six months one wishes never to leave it. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison rome tired wish the islands of Italy combine all the elements - fire, water, earth, and air - and that is irresistible. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison fire air islands Insanity is a lack of proportion. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison proportion insanity I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tunafish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison illusions illusion belief absence True revolutionaries are like God - they create the world in their own image. Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison future responsibility god children