Every creative act – in science, art, or religion – involves a regression to a more primitive level, a new innocence of perception liberated from the cataract of accepted beliefs.

What is an editor but a cross between a fall guy and a father figure? arthur koestler

Innovation is a twofold threat to academic mediocrities: it endangers their oracular authority, and it evokes the deeper fear that their whole, laboriously constructed intellectual edifice might collapse.

[My father] loved me tenderly and shyly from a distance, and later on took a naive pride in seeing my name in print.

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

The cell door slammed behind Rubishov.

There is only one prospect worse than being chained to an intolerable existence: The nightmare of a botched attempt to end it.