Erik Erikson has commented: Potentially creative men like (Bernard) Shaw build the personal fundament of their work during a self-decreed moratorium, during which they often starve themselves, socially, erotically, and, at last but not least, nutritionally, in order to let the grosser weeds die out, and make way for the growth of their inner garden.

We are each born into a situation-a particular body (its race, sex, health...), a set of ancestors, a community, a nation-and born into the stories told of each of these.

An essential portion of any artist's labor is not creation so much as invocation

Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.

Science may not be as intimate as the medical profession; nonetheless, it certainly is a community in which ideas are often shared as contributions, not as proprietary things.

We forgive when we give up attachment to our wounds.

When we are moved by art we are grateful that the artist lived, grateful that he labored in the service of his gifts.