To be human is to be in the tense condition of a death-foreseeing, consciously libidinous animal. No other earthly creature suffers such a capacity for thought, such a complexity of envisioned but frustrated possibilities, such a troubling ability to question the tribal and biological imperatives.

That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.

In a country this large and a language even larger ... there ought to be a living for somebody who cares and wants to entertain and instruct a reader.

Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage.

We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

Vagueness and procrastination are ever a comfort to the frail in spirit.

Figure out where you're going before you go there: he was told that a long time ago.