I drink to keep body and soul apart.

The appointment [in Harvard] gave me economic safety, writerly support, and intellectual self-respectplus eight months to myself every year.

The dotted line my father's ashplant made On Sandymount Strand Is something else the tide won't wash away.

Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind.

It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning. For every one of us, living in this world means waiting for our end. Let whoever can win glory before death. When a warrior is gone, that will be his best and only bulwark.

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

I suppose I did feel a certain public pressure always.