Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.

By the age of forty, a man is responsible for his face. And his fate.

The rifle and handgun are 'equalizers' -- the weapons of a democracy. Tanks and bombers represent dictatorship.

One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community. I never felt that living in a city - as I once did for a couple of years.

One day in Dipstick, Nebraska, or Landfill, Oklahoma, is worth more to me than an eternity in Dante's plastic Paradiso, or Yeats's gold-plated Byzantium.

We know so very little about this strange planet we live on, this haunted world where all answers lead only to more mystery.

It may be true that there are no atheists in foxholes. But you don't find many Christians there, either. Or, about as many of one as the other.