I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.

I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye.

Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.

There was no manifestation of contemporary culture that did not indicate to my grandmother how steadfast was the nation's decline, how merciless our mental and moral deterioration, how swiftly all-embracing our final decadence. I never saw her read a book again; but she referred to books often - as if they were shrines and cathedrals of learning that television had plundered and then abandoned.

Wrestling was my first success, the first thing that confirmed that I could be good at anything. Devoting yourself to wrestling, or tennis, or skiing, or dance, or to a musical instrument is a longing to be disciplined for a purpose.

I think now that is the nature of hymns-they make us want to repeat them...they are a part of any service, and often the only part of a funeral service, that makes us feel everything is acceptable.

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.