Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.

It's a terrible thing to die young. Still, it saves a lot of time.

I do lots of reading and speaking at many universities about literature and also about politics, which is as much a part of my life as the literature.

Old age is another country, a place of strangeness, sometimes, and dislocation. There's a lot to be done in this country, and a great deal of pleasure there. There are friends, some of whom are sick and needful of you, as you will be of them someday. The world itself is very beautiful. It's a place where you have a lot to do. But you have to do it knowing that sometimes you will be afraid of this new country.

I liked the education. I liked people learning things all around me and I liked going to people's classes.

Just when I most needed important conversation, a sniff of the man-wide world, that is, at least one brainy companion who could translate my friendly language into his tongue of undying carnal love, I was forced to lounge in our neighborhood park, surrounded by children.

All that is really necessary for survival of the fittest, it seems, is an interest in life, good, bad or peculiar.