I believe it was Gayelord Hauser, the nutritionist, who said, 'You are what you eat,' but if you happen to be an intellectual, you are what you quote.

I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.

Within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.

I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.

We who are quotatious are never truly alone, but always hear the cheerful flow of remarks made by dead writers so much more intelligent than we.

I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks

What, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps mostof all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life and the calculations of public life.