Any man's life can be seen as a series of engagements with his fathers, Including the surrogates provided by life and literature.

A storyteller, a displaced poet, will absorb reading differently.

Young, healthy communities can afford to roll the dice.

The towering genius is not apolitical.

He might not take their advice, but he took their temperature.

Lincoln was a master of small group theatrics.

To use the past, he had to save it from aspects of itself.

Lincoln told a family friend that his father taught him to work, but never learned him to love it.

Literature offered a safe circumscribed outlet for sadness.

God produced great writing, a matter of first importance to a man like Lincoln, ever impressed with the nature of cause and forces.

She became at once more intimate and more exalted.

A horse must be a bit mad to be a good cavalry mount, and its rider must be completely so.

What would it be like if I could accept life--accept this moment--exactly as it is?

One of the best ways to realize that age is an illusion is to have your body get older and realize that you are who you always have been.

I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women.

Success in solving the problem depends on choosing the right aspect, on attacking the fortress from its accessible side.

A diva is someone who pretends to know who she is and looks fabulous doing it.

A leader can give up anything - except final responsibility.

He who hears this name [God] from a Jew must inform the authorities, or else throw sow dung at him when he sees him and chase him away.

Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.

You know, actually, I went to Yale because I wanted to stay out of the army.