Suits obviously had helped to promote bad government and he was as guilty as anyone for wearing them so steadfastly for twenty years. Of late he had become frightened of the government for the first time in his life, the way the structure of democracy had begun debasing people rather than enlivening them in their mutual concern. The structure was no longer concerned with the purpose for which it was designed, and a small part of the cause, Nordstrom thought, was probably that all politicians and bureaucrats wore suits.

The old fun thing is when somebody typed up the first chapter of War and Peace. And then made a precis of the rest of it and sent it out and only one publisher recognized it.

Zen is the vehicle of reality.

Life is an honor, albeit anonymously delivered.

I rarely read or buy a book because of a review.

Poetry at its best is the language your soul would speak if you could teach your soul to speak.

The world that used to nurse us now keeps shouting inane instructions. That's why I ran to the woods.