The real and proper question is: why is it beautiful?

Are you living just a little and calling that life?

For all the insularity of the old guard, Pittsburgh was always an open and democratic town.

Young children have no sense of wonder. They bewilder well, but few things surprise them. All of it is new to young children, after all, and equally gratuitous.

Let the grass die. I let almost all of my indoor plants die from neglect while I was writing the book. There are all kinds of ways to live. You can take your choice. You can keep a tidy house, and when St. Peter asks you what you did with your life, you can say, I kept a tidy house, I made my own cheese balls.

I feel as though I stand at the foot of an infinitely high staircase, down which some exuberant spirit is flinging tennis ball after tennis ball, eternally, and the one thing I want in the world is a tennis ball.

The creative process obtains in all creative acts. So if I'm painting suddenly I'll see something that I didn't see before.