For me writing is foremost a mode of thinking and when it works well, an act of discovery

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

The best joke-tellers are those who have the patience to wait for conversation to come around to the point where the jokes in their repertoire have application.

If geniuses can sometimes make mistakes, cannot the rest of us on occasion be geniuses?

One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes to the mail, I feel it is better to receive than to give.

While reading writers of great formulatory power — Henry James, Santayana, Proust — I find I can scarcely get through a page without having to stop to record some lapidary sentence. Reading Henry James, for example, I have muttered to myself, "C’mon, Henry, turn down the brilliance a notch, so I can get some reading done." I may be one of a very small number of people who have developed writer’s cramp while reading.

A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.