We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.

If sometimes there seems to be a sort of sameness of sound in The New Yorker, it probably can be traced to the magazine's copydesk, which is a marvelous fortress of grammatical exactitude and stylish convention.

To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.

A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.

A man must have something to cling to. Without that he is as a pea vine sprawling in search of a trellis.... I was all asprawl, clinging to Beauty, which is a very restless trellis.

Our vegetable garden is coming along well, with radishes and beans up, and we are less worried about revolution that we used to be.

Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.