There are very few humorists who have written first-rate humor after they've become elderly.

Shakespeare, who never could think up a plot by himself, found this one [Macbeth] in Holinshed's Chronicles, changing it just enough so that no one would recognize the source. He didn't count on the resourcefulness of modern scholars, who have to discover things like this to become associate professors.

If only I kept my eye on the ball, Looking downward as does the pro there, I might not see where it was going, at all, But there might be a chance it would go there.

A rumor is one thing that gets thicker instead of thinner as it is spread.

[Beowolf] is considered an epic because of its long speeches, its digressions, its repetition, and its being required.

There are very few humorists who have written first-rate humor after they've become elderly.

I've suffered from all of the hang-ups known, and none is as bad as the telephone.