and even the trees we walked under seemed less than trees and more like everything else.

I didn't feel that way about it. I had been playing with death for some time. I can't say we were the best of friends but we were well acquainted.

I guess for me Hemingway is a lot like it is for others: he goes down well when we are young.

Figuring the average poet starts at 16, I am 23.

Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else's truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that's great.

the writing of some men is like a vast bridge that carries you over the many things that claw and tear. The Wine of Forever

If I bet on humanity, I'd never cash a ticket.