Don't be too dismissive of children. While it's true that few children are artists, all artists are children.

Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible. But what a racket I make in declaring this.

The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own.

Sooner or later you've heard all your best friends have to say. Then comes the tolerance of real love.

Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced.

If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.

In music the present is extended.