We are all ignorant; just about different things.

There is no security in life, only opportunity.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition.

Information appears to stew out of me naturally, like the precious otter of roses out of the otter.

Don't look at the world with your hands in your pockets. To write about it you have to reach out and touch it.

[On Dutch flat poetry]: It is too smooth and blubbery; it reads like butter-milk gurgling from a jug.

The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, "Where is the best place to go to?" He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages--heaven for climate, and hell for society.