The first time I walked into a library, I got so excited I almost wet my pants.

Obama's the most thoughtful-sounding president I can remember. He seems to be saying what he wants to say, and that is a great relief. He always sounds like he's thinking about what he's saying while he's saying it, and that's a rare thing in politicians.

When money gets too far away from actual, physical, real equity and property it gets too abstract and too distantly derived and then suddenly it's not worth anything anymore. And the same is true of language.

According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.

I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.

Studying literature at Harvard is like learning about women at the Mayo Clinic.

If a cat spoke, it would say things like, 'Hey, I don't see the problem here.'