To really be centered and to really work well and to think about the kinds of things that I need to think about, I need to spend large amounts of time alone.

I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime?

Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

Taking on challenging projects is the way that one grows and extends one's range as a writer, one's technical command, so I consider the time well-spent

Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror.

Always remember, the person we’re really working for is the person who’s restoring the piece a hundred years from now. He’s the one we want to impress.

There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty-unless she is wed to something more meaningful-is always superficial