Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)

All forms of government are pernicious, including good government.

The artist's job? To be a miracle worker: make the blind see, the dull feel, the dead to live.

Life is unfair. And it's not fair that life is unfair.

We are kindred all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, and trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails; all of them, all of us. Long live diversity, long live the earth!

Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement. One dissenting voice would shatter the whole fragile structure.

J. Edgar Hoover, J. Bracken Lee, J. Parnell Thomas, J. Paul Getty -- you can always tell a shithead by that initial initial.