The Pulitzer is more useful than meaningful.

The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.

I wake up thinking: What am I reading? What will I read next? I'm terrified that I'll run out, that I will read through all I want to, and be forced to learn wildflowers at last, to keep awake.

If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed.

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 know only enough of God to want to worship him, by any means ready to hand.

I had been chipping at the world idly, and had by accident uncovered vast and labyrinthine further worlds within it.