Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.

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).

...the sweetness of grace and freedom comes hand in hand with the uncomfortable, bitter-rawness of honest emotions and grief.

They just had to be patient. Destiny would bring them what they needed, yet again.

If the goal is unknown, then abuse is inevitable

repose, v.i. To cease from troubling.

The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds.

I think I have a pugnacious style. My style is not pretty. I don't use words like "amber" or "opaque."

History is important. More than any other topic, it is about us. Whether one deems our present society wondrous or awful or both, history reveals how we got to this point.

I bought a little hideaway up north, so I'll ship my motorcycle up there. It's much less dangerous than West Hollywood.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

Life exists without rules; games cannot exist without rules. So real religion is always without rules; only false religion has rules, because false religion is a game.