True solitude is a din of birdsong, seething leaves, whirling colors, or a clamor of tracks in the snow.

Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga - stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts.

Man is different from animals in that he speculates, a high-risk activity.

There were periods during my childhood when I stammered so badly I couldn't talk at all.

There are two kinds of writers: hustlers and sanctimonious hustlers.

Many divorces are not really the result of irreparable injury but involve, instead, a desire on the part of the man or woman to shatter the setup, start out from scratch alone, and make life work for them all over again. They want the risk of disaster, want to touch bottom, see where bottom is, and, coming up, to breathe the air with relief and relish again.

Country people tend to consider that they have a corner on righteousness and to distrust most manifestations of cleverness, while people in the city are leery of righteousness but ascribe to themselves all manner of cleverness.