Nerdighters make me believe in America again.

The future will erase everything--there's no level of fame or genius that allows you to transcend oblivion. The infinite future makes that kind of mattering impossible.

And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way.

Witness also that when we talk about literature, we do so in the present tense. When we speak of the dead, we are not so kind.

Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn't going to make me deaf. I feel so fortunate that an intellectual giant like yourself would deign to operate on me.

Poetry is just so emo." he said. "Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.

It was an indulgence, learning last words. Other people had chocolate; I had dying declarations.