You're a materialist, like all ignorant people. But your materialism doesn't make materialism true. Don't you know that? In the final summing up, it is spirit and dream, thought and love and act that matter.

Knowledge is soon changed, then lost in the mist, an echo half-heard.

Some writers say they cannot write in front of a window; many say they cannot function without almost perfect quiet. A writer with only two hours a day can write in the back of an open truck on the Interstate.

People don't want other people to be people.

We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.

Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.

We have treatments for disturbed persons, Nicholas. But, at least for the time being, we have no treatment for disturbing persons.