Discovering, for example, that as witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty, as to what you are or have been. [p. 65]

History is the lies of the victors.

May you be ordinary, as the poet once wished the new-born baby.

Everything in art depends on execution: the story of a louse can be as beautiful as the story of Alexander. You must write according to your feelings, be sure those feelings are true, and let everything else go hang. When a line is good it ceases to belong to any school. A line of prose must be as immutable as a line of poetry.

Loving humanity means as much, and as little, as loving raindrops, or loving the Milky Way. You say that you love humanity? Are you sure you aren’t treating yourself to easy self-congratulation, seeking approval, making certain you’re on the right side?

Most of us remember adolescence as a kind of double negative: no longer allowed to be children, we are not yet capable of being adults.

You grew old first not in your own eyes, but in other people's eyes; then, slowly, you agreed with their opinion of you.