America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.

If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.

Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.

We were German-Americans in a British colony, so we were outsiders.

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

All these years, I've been opening the window and making love to the world.