My father said, ‘When in doubt, castle.’

I apologize because of the terrible mess the planet is in. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any 'Good Old Days,' there have just been days. And as I say to my grandchildren, 'Don't look at me. I just got here myself.'

If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do.

I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival.

We are America's Great Lakes people, her freshwater people, not an oceanic but a continental people. Whenever I swim in an ocean, I feel as though I am swimming in chicken soup.

The death of a library, any library, suggests that the community has lost its soul.

What's the point of being alive," she said, "if you're not going to communicate?