Children, to be illustrious is sad.

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.

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.

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).

They are the living dead and we have many of those among us, spending their days whining and complaining and never making any attempt to change their lives for the better.

Percy: Dad-Poseidon: Very well! It shall be as you say. But my son, pray this works.Percy: I'm praying, I'm talking to you, right?Poseidon: Oh...yes. Good point.

I work constantly to be better at being rejected.

My dad invented road rage. He wasn't the first guy to get mad in the car, but he was first guy to get mad enough to make the paper.

An itinerant masseur, massaging the politically erogenous zones.

You have to be a model and multifaceted, but there's not a lot of ways for a model to be multifaceted because the actresses took all the covers.

If Britain were honest, which I dispute, she would then embrace all nations on terms of equality.

A lot of women feel ashamed to be weak.

What happened to goodbye?

This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.