The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.

Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig

The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.

Literate households in the 17th century would have had the Bible, John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," and a couple of other books. Shakespeare plays were cheap, so you could buy those, but a folio cost a pound, which was an incredible amount of money then.

What we know is that Shakespeare wrote perhaps the most remarkable body of passionate love poetry in the English language to a young man.

The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.

No special writing rituals. And my desk is usually cluttered.