The arts put man at the center of the universe, whether he belongs there or not. Military science, on the other hand, treats man as garbage - and his children, and his cities, too. Military science is probably right about the contemptibility of man in the vastness of the universe. Still - I deny that contemptibility, and I beg you to deny it, through the creation of appreciation of art.

My God, the religious right will not acknowledge what a merciful person Jesus was.

What can any one person do?' he said. 'Each person does a little something,' I said, 'and there you are.

Most writers are not quick-witted when they talk. Novelists, in particular, drag themselves around in society like gut-shot bears.

kar.a.bek.i.an (n.); (from Rabo Karabekian, U.S. 20th Cent. painter). Fiasco in which a person causes total destruction of own work and reputation through stupidity, carelessness or both.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

I couldn't help wondering if that was what God put me on Earth for--to find out how much a man could take without breaking.