I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the things you learn not to know.

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).

Simplicity of appearance can cause hindrance to success when you are poor. But the same simplicity is admired in a rich and successful person.

I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

I was very shy, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate if I had a camera between me and other people.

What is that one crucifixion compared to the daily kind any insomniac endures?

I have to convince myself I know what I'm doing.

Pleas'd me, long choosing and beginning late.

Dying is strange and hard if it is not our death, but a death that takes us by storm, when we've ripened none within us.

You should always have a worst case point. The only choice should be to get out quicker.

There is no fear before and no fear after. We give our best.