How poetic you are," she said. "I've a notion that poetry is the highest form of self-deception.

I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer.

Light will blind us in time, but what we learn in the dark can see us through.

I learned failure early and mastered it.

We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out. Once we really get the full measure of it--we're slow learners, we women--we dry up in disgust and sensibly halt production.

So let my hands and my face make their way in this world, let my hungry eyes see, my tongue taste.

I like to think Im a pretty good-natured guy and pretty civil and probably not ever truly guilty in any serious way of any legal infractions.