The aesthetic is an individual rather than a societal concern.

At our present bad moment, we need above all to recover our sense of literary individuality and of poetic autonomy.

Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.

One reads for oneself and for strangers.

Originality must compound with inheritance.

The aesthetic and the agonistic are one, according to the ancient Greeks.

The inventor knows HOW to borrow.

Persuasion is a strong but subdued outrider.

King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.

Shakespeare's exquisite imagining belies our total inability to live in the present moment.

Reviewing bad books is bad for the character – WH Auden

A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.

Seek knowledge from the Cradle to the Grave

I always have the fear that, if I don't commit 100 percent to my work, then it's gonna suffer.

It looks like Rudy Giuliani is out of the race. Finally, a Republican with an exit strategy.

You have to go forward: It's the only way. You have to go forward no matter what happens. This is the universal law.

By building a simple system, with just a few guiding principles, eBay was open to organic growth.

You may live in a crowd but you meet God and face eternity alone

I've never yet managed to write a novel which didn't have an Indian central character.

In 1920, the West ruled huge amounts of the world.

The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.