What was so terrible about grief was not grief itself, but that one got over it.

Absolute nakedness was intrusive, confusing to the senses. Paradoxically, it both revealed and diminished identity.

I still occasionally need to struggle but I now fear it less. The weapons I fight it with are also my consolations: books, music, food, wine, nature.

I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art.

All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have.

All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.

A nation that can't remember its dead will soon cease to be worth dying for.