A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shadows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.

A question is a trap and an answer is your foot in it.

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.

I dislike helplessness in other people and in myself, and this is by far my greatest fear of illness.

I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen. It's scary to think about. Point of reference again. When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.

In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence, but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.

How can the poem and the stink and the grating noise - the quality of light, the tone, the habit and the dream - be set down alive?