No nostalgia runs deeper than that for something one has never known and now cannot obtain.

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

Many moons ago dictionaries of quotations may have been less needed than they are today. In those good/bad old days, people walked around with entire poems and all the Shakespearean soliloquies in their heads.

My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.

In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

The reason 'closure' is a cliche is that it is used too often, too imprecisely, and doesn't in any case reflect reality. In reality, such closure in broken friendships and much else in life is rarely achieved; only death brings closure and then not always for those still living.

What all great teachers appear to have in common is love of their subject, an obvious satisfaction in rousing this love in their students, and an ability to convince them that what they are being taught is deadly serious