I write for a radio show that, no matter what, will go on the air Saturday at five o'clock central time. You learn to write toward that deadline, to let the adrenaline pick you up on Friday morning and carry you through, to cook up a monologue about Lake Wobegon and get to the theater on time.

A minister has to be able to read a clock. At noon, it's time to go home and turn up the pot roast and get the peas out of the freezer.

Being Lutheran, Mother believed that self-pity is a deadly sin and so is nostalgia, and she had no time for either

You can go your whole life and not need math or physics for a minute, but the ability to tell a joke is always handy.

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.

The reason to retire is to try to avoid embarrassment; you ought to do it before people are dropping big hints. You want to be the first to come up with the idea. You don't want to wait until you trip and fall off the stage.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do, and in those times, you must do something anyway.