Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.

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).

To be loved is a strength. To love is a weakness.

My favorite part of my appearance is my height. I'm five foot one and I feel feminine being small.

If you do not specify and confront real issues, what you say will surely obscure them. If you do not embody controversy, what you say will be an acceptance of the drift to the coming human hell.

If you put your faith in yourself and your abilities, intellect and dreams, then your foundation is only as strong as you are.

The key is to never recognize these imbalances. To not let the dauntingness daunt us.

You are upgrading your technology, and you've not upgraded yourself!

I'm afraid my glass is no longer half full because I drank most of it.

I don't want to retire. I still want to play.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be.

You think you know yourself, the world. You believe you've got a bead on everybody else's bullshit, but what about your own?