I love the fact publishers are still publishing unprofitable material. It's a challenge to the powers that be. It's saying there is a real literature in this country and we will keep publishing it.

A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

Sadness is no more than a bit of acid transfixed in the cerebellum.

I think people all over the institution recognize that different ways of understanding are valuable. Artists may think in a different way than biologists or chemists, but you can learn something from that. It is true that the arts at MIT don't have the same amount of funding or same status as the sciences or engineering.

Writers read essays and serious thinkers and serious readers... that is a small population.

I think Joe Leiberman has been one of the leaders of the country... people have such a broad respect for him as a moral force.

Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.