That I was sleeping at a time when my husband was dying is so horrible a thought, I can’t confront it.

Hospital vigils inspire us to such nostalgia. Hospital vigils take place in slow-time during which the mind floats free, a frail balloon drifting into the sky as into infinity.

She will speculate that she didn’t fully know her husband—this will give her leverage to seek him, to come to know him. It will keep her husband “alive” in her memory—elusive, teasing.

How exhausted I am suddenly!—though this has been Ray’s best day in the hospital so far, and we are feeling—almost—exhilarated.

It is the most horrific thought—my husband died among strangers.

The coolly calibrated manipulation of the credulous American public, by an administration bent upon stoking paranoid patriotism!

The gardener is the quintessential optimist: not only does he believe that the future will bear out the fruits of his efforts, he believes in the future.

For writing is a solitary occupation, and one of its hazards is loneliness. But an advantage of loneliness is privacy, autonomy, freedom.

It is utterly naive, futile, uninformed—to think that our species is exceptional. So designated to master the beasts of the Earth, as in the Book of Genesis!

There is no water, so things are bad. If there were water, it would be better. But there is no water.

You only know there is love and you feel beloved when you share, when you're gasping for air.You only know you are living and every moment you were longing for air.

Poisons are more my thing

Power is action the electoral principle is discussion. No political action is possible when discussion is permanently established.

My attraction has never been to computers per se, but to the fact that they offer a highly leveraged way to invent magic.

If at one time or another I have brushed a few colleagues the wrong way, I must apologize: I had not realized that they were covered with fur.

And here is our girl, looking-- If possible, worse than before. (You thought this was Cinderella transistorized?)

It was Saturday night and I was feelin kinda funny, Gold around my neck, pockets full of money.

A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It's a creator of inwardness.

There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction that goes with knowing your time, talent and abilities are not being properly used.