When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.

One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life. People who don't read are trapped in a mine shaft, even if they think the sun is shining.

Sport is a seductive metaphor (life as a game in which we gain victory through hard work, discipline, and visualizing success). but the older metaphor of farming (life as hard labor that is subject to weather and quirks of blind fate and may return no reward whatsoever and don't be surprised) is still in our blood.

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.'

In Lake Wobegon, we don't forget mistakes.

I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.

Honesty is a rare commodity in a palace, and that is why so many fairy-tale marriages end up on the rocks.