Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe ... that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.

The Constitution doesn't mention rain.

Who included me among the ranks of the human race?

Poetry is not only the most concise way of conveying the human experience; it also offers the highest possible standards for any linguistic operation.

Perhaps art is simply an organism's reaction against its retentive limitations.

Perhaps the best proof of the Almighty's existence is that we never know when we are to die.

I had this fantasy of becoming a neurosurgeon. You know, the normal Jewish boy fantasy, but I wanted to be a neurosurgeon for some reason. So I started in this unpleasant way. I was an assistant to the coroner, opening up corpses, taking the innards out, opening skulls, taking the brains out.