Journalism has not only its social stimulations but its aesthetic virtues. An invitation into print, from however suspect a source, is an opportunity to make something beautiful, to discover within oneself a treasure that would otherwise have remained buried.

Students present themselves...like a succession of CDs whose shimmering surface gives no clue to their contents without the equipment to play them.

It's been the same story ever since I can remember, ever since Wilson - the Republicans don't do a thing for the little man.

So, you know, I think any life has in it enough material, enough points of departure, to fuel a writer's career and that we shouldn't worry about what we're not but to try to focus on what we are and what we do know.

Without rain, there would be no life.

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes.

I'm somewhat shy about the brutal facts of being a carnivore. I don't like meat to look like animals. I prefer it in the form of sausages, hamburger and meat loaf, far removed from the living thing.