A writer’s life is in his work, and that is the place to find him.

The best revenge is living well without you.

For what are the words with which to summarize a lifetime, so much crowded confused happiness terminated by such stark slow-motion pain?

Life is like boxing in many unsettling respects. But boxing is only like boxing.

The books I read I do enjoy, very much; otherwise I wouldn't read them. Most of them are for review, for the New York Review of Books, and substantial.

If I'm writing, I'll say something metaphorical or approximate, whereas scientists are very precise.

The mere passage of time makes us all exiles.