No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.

I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity.

I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically.

The individual appears for an instant, joins the community of thought, modifies it and dies; but the species, that dies not, reaps the fruit of his ephemeral existence.

I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it's at its most powerful.

Our days weave together the simple pleasures of daily life, which we should never take for granted, and the higher pleasures of Art and Thought which we may now taste as we please, with none to forbid or criticise.

Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it.