The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I’ve read so often that I’ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out.

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

I suppose the shock of recognition is one of the nastiest shocks of all.

I'd rather write one good book than ten mediocre ones.

Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.

Still when I lost her, I lost sight of any landmark that might have led me someplace happier, to some more populated or congenial life.

...with a grief no less sharp for not being intimate with its object.