One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill.

The world is what it is, no less and no more, and therein lies its entire and sufficient meaning.

In order to write a book, it is necessary to sit down (or stand up) and write. Therein lies the difficulty.

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

Music endures and ages far better than books. Books, made of words, are unavoidably attached to ideas, events, conflict, and history, but music has the power to transcend time. At least for a time. Palestrina sounds as fresh today as he did in 1555, but Dante, only three centuries older, already smells of the archaic, the medieval, the catacombs.

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

How could anything non-controversial be of intellectual interest to grown-ups?