It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters.

To the devil with false modesty.

It is the tale, not he who tells it.

You can see the goldenrod, that most tenacious and pernicious and beauteous of all New England flora, bowing away from the wind like a great and silent congregation.

God pisses down the back of your neck every day but only drowns you once.

Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity.

It's best to have your tools with you. If you don't, you're apt to find something you didn't expect and get discouraged.