The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought.

The women all had big minds because they were big animals, but they didn't use them for this reason: unusual ideas could make enemies and the women, if they were going to achieve any sort of comfort and safety, needed all the friends they could get. So, in the interest of survival they trained themselves to be agreeing machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking and then they thought it too.

I just know that there are plenty of people who are in terrible trouble and can't get out. And so I'm impatient with those who think that it's easy for people to get out of trouble.

The canary bird in the coal mine theory of the arts: artists should be treasured as alarm systems.

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.

All right - I'll tell you what you did for me: you went for happy, silly, beautiful walks with me.

. . . but the Universe is an awfully big place. There is room enough for an awful lot of people to be right about things and still not agree.