The novelist screws up his courage in order to invest another two or three years in another attempt to float a boat of original design upon an invented ocean.

The question of whether it's God's green earth is not at center stage, except in the sense that if so, one is reminded with some regularity that He may be dying.

It would be hard to define chaos better than as a world where children decide they don't want to live.

If human nature eventually is going to take the place of nature everywhere, those of us who have been naturalists will have to transpose the faith in nature which is inherent in the profession to a faith in man-if necessary, man alone in the world.

To relive the relationship between owner and slave we can consider how we treat our cars and dogs - a dog exercising a somewhat similar leverage on our mercies and an automobile being comparable in value to a slave in those days

Sophistication" is another word for that inventive mix of tolerance, resilience, and resourcefulness city people develop.

Men greet each other with a sock on the arm, women with a hug, and the hug wears better in the long run.