Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.

Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.

For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application why, the novel is practically the retail business all over again.

A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier.

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).

The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me.

Greatness is bought with time and so is financial prosperity.

I find it increasingly difficult to speak of my feelings at will.

Passion does not make careful arguments: it declares itself, and that is enough.

One man's consumption becomes his neighbor's wish.

Although the world proved not yet ready for the brotherhood of baseball, that would be only a matter of time, baseball magnates believed.

I try and make little stories. Whether it's with a pencil or with bits of records, it's really the same thing.

I think for me, food was a way for me to deal with emotional trouble.

To start writing about your life is, from one standpoint, to stop living it. You must avoid adventures today so as to make time for registering those of yesterday.

I will not give or back off from my path.

Why on earth declutter when you can just shrinkwrap?