To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim.

I have always been the lover - never the beloved - and I have spent much of my life waiting for trains, planes, boats, footsteps, doorbells, letters, telephones, snow, rain, thunder.

The irony of Christmas is always upon the poor in heart; the mystery of the solstice is always upon the rest of us.

Literature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the world.

Falsehood is a critical element in fiction. Part of the thrill of being told a story is the chance of being hoodwinked. . .The telling of lies is a sort of sleight of hand that displays our deepest feelings about life.

There is a terrible sameness to the euphoria of alcohol and the euphoria of metaphor.

How can a people who do not mean to understand death hope to understand love, and who will sound the alarm?