I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.

Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

To acquire a new perspective we must change our point of reference.

My arm began moving, turning the invisible crank of Death's music box. Somewhere inside, I didn't want the melody to end.

Robert Treat Paine was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.

When you're using a long brush, you have your arm at full length. Basically, it exaggerates the movement of your body. But I always start far away and end up really close.

I allow myself to get firmly sucked in. I love that! I come from that.

If leeches ate peaches instead of my blood, then I would be free to drink tea in the mud!

I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future.

On the Medicare side, they limited their cuts to far in the future, and to providers.

My expectations are incredibly high.