I now understand the need for faith - pure, blind, fly-in-the-face-of-reason faith - as a small life preserver in the wild and endless sea of a universe ruled by unfeeling laws and totally indifferent to the small, reasoning beings that inhabit it.

I loved almost everything about being a teacher, but I was an unusual teacher

Belief in one's identity as a poet or writer prior to the acid test of publication is as naive and harmless as the youthful belief in one's immortality... and the inevitable disillusionment is just as painful.

The young remember most deeply.... When we are old and failing, it is the memories of childhood which can be summoned most clearly.

The pack of media brayed and bellowed outside the house for seven weeks. Sol realized then what he had known and forgotten about very small communities: they were frequently annoying, always parochial, sometimes prying on a one-to-one level, but never had they subscribed to the vicious legacy of the so-called "public's right to know".

Doing a life study while drunk and in the process of being seduced is never a formula for quality art.

How could anyone stay sane with entire lifetimes stored in one human mind?