Shakespeare wrote great poetry and preposterous plays. Who really cares, for example, which petty tyrant rules Milan? Or who succeeds to the throne of Denmark? Or why the barons ganged up on Richard II?

As war and government prove, insanity is the most contagious of diseases.

Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero.

Are people more important than the grizzly bear? Only from the point of view of some people.

The industrial corporation is the natural enemy of nature.

There comes a point, in literary objectivity, when the author's self- effacement is hard to distinguish from moral cowardice.

There is a wine called Easy Days and Mellow Nights, well-known on the outskirts of the Navajo reservation. It is an economical wine, fortified with the best of intentions, and I recommend it to every serious wino.