Understanding, and action proceeding from understanding and guided by it, is one weapon against the world's bombardment, the one medicine, the one instrument by which liberty, health, and joy may be shaped . . . in the individual, and in the race.

I know I am making the choice most dangerous to an artist in valuing life above art.

Some people get where they hope to in this world. Most of us don't.

A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children.

Well, now, some people learn a little quicker than others. It's nice to learn fast but it's nice to take your time too.

All of consciousness is shifted from the imagined, the revisive, to the effort to perceive simply the cruel radiance of what is

It's kind of a test, Mary, and it's the only kind that amounts to anything. When something rotten like this happens, then you have your choice. You start to really be alive, or you start to die. That's all.