When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what you do.

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 sea is dangerous, they say, but not if you're the sea.

You deserve to be rich. You deserve to live a happy life. You deserve peace of mind. You deserve respect. You deserve loving relationships. And YES, it’s all possible.

The past is past. You tried to kill yourself. So what? I humped a couch in season twelve. We all have our skeletons.

Histhry is a post-mortem examination. It tellsye what a counthry died iv. But I'd like to know what it lived iv.

These Americans believe that everything is possible.

No friendship has done its work until it reaches the supremest satisfaction of spiritual communion.

I take pictures, and they are there for the taking. I'll tell you a quote that I have always thought about. Arthur Miller said, I try to create the poem from the evidence.

We don't need heroes so much as recognizing ourselves as heroes.

It's a hell of a thing to be born, and if you're born you're at least entitled to your own self.

Yes, I want money more than anything else in the world.” “Then you’ve made the only choice. But there’s a penalty attached, as there is to most things you want. It’s loneliness.