I don't like to see things on purpose. I like them to soak in. A friend . . . asked me to go to the top of the Empire State Building once, and I told him that he shouldn't treat New York as a sight-it's feeling, an emotional experience. And the same with every place else.

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

What makes a nation in the beginning is a good piece of geography.

I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down.

Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom.