I think books should have secrets, like people do.

If men do not keep on speaking terms with children, they cease to be men, and become merely machines for eating and for earning money.

Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring - an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.

A photograph presents itself not only as a visual representation, but as evidence, more convincing than a painting because of the unimpeachable mechanical means whereby it was made. We do not trust the artist's flattering hand; but we do trust film, and shadows, and light.

Adversity in immunological doses has its uses; more than that crushes.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self- solitude is the enemy of well- being.

Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life.