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

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.

The same piece of music alters at each hearing. But oh, the need to repeat and repeat and repeat unchanged the sexual experience.

All men are forced into one of two categories: those with eleven fingers and those without.

Bel canto is to opera what pole-vaulting is to ballet.

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

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