“It’s interesting how young poets think of death while old fogies think of girls.”

I expect them to tell me things about myself I don’t know.

Eleanor Roosevelt doesn’t ever do anything that is going to hurt her husband. She tries things out on him. She gets permission to do things.

A symbol of the eternity that preceded human thought, a free fire, a gift from heaven, a living sign of the elements unnoticed by the world-weary pedestrian, a fire in the ditches of Prague warming the wanderer’s eye and soul.

Because real thoughts come from outside and travel with us like the noodle soup we take to work; in other words, inquisitors burn books in vain.

Because when I read, I don’t really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop.