Though I've lived in the rural West most of my life, I never once fell in love with a horse. Not once. Neither end.

Salome had but seven veils; the artist has a thousand.

Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it fulfills only a third of the role.

England has never enjoyed a genuine social revolution. Maybe that's what's wrong with that dear, tepid, vapid, insipid, stuffy, little country.

Within minutes my 115-mile walk through the desert hills becomes a thing apart, a disjunct reality on the far side of a bottomless abyss, immediately beyond physical recollection.But it's all still there in my heart and soul. The walk, the hills, the sky, the solitary pain and pleasure-they will grow larger, sweeter, lovelier in the days to come, like a treasure found and then, voluntarily, surrendered. Returned to the mountains with my blessing. It leaves a golden glowing on the mind.

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.

Jane Austen: Getting into her books is like getting in bed with a cadaver. Something vital is lacking; namely, life.