Blame is especially useful in situations in which there is no apparent villain-those moments that prove, despite our advancement of learning, how susceptible we are to high winds and wet roads.

A library should be like a pair of open arms.

Remote control. Ingenious contradiction of terms. Fits like a handshake. Aims like a gun.

Why, for example, do the great writers use anticipation instead of surprise? Because surprise is merely an instrument of the unusual, whereas anticipation of a consequence enlarges our understanding of what is happening.

Whatever you think matters - doesn't. Follow this rule, and you will add decades to your life.

The best in art and life comes from a center - something urgent and powerful, an idea or emotion that insists on its being. From that insistence, a shape emerges and creates its structure out of passion. If you begin with a structure, you have to make up the passion, and that's very hard to do.

There is nothing like a man for bringing out the animal in an animal.