in the beginning William Shakespeare was a baby, and knew absolutely nothing. He couldn't even speak.

Yes, the mistrust of poetry has a long history, for a variety of reasons, but they all come down to sentiment and invention over fact and truth. Figurative language is suspicious.

Once I witnessed a windstorm so severe two 100-year-old trees were uprooted on the spot. The next day, walking among the wreckage, I found the friable nests of birds, completely intact and unharmed on the ground. That the featherweight survive the massive, that this reversal of fortune takes place among us — that is what haunts me. I don’t know what it means.

Irreverence is a way of playing hooky and remaining present at the same time.

in the beginning William Shakespeare was a baby, and knew absolutely nothing. He couldn't even speak.

People, the people we really love, where did they come from? What did we do to deserve them?

I study nature so as not to do foolish things.