All children... feel a demonic sympathy with those things that cause disorder in the grown-up world.

For a lot of people, poetry tends to be dull. It's not read much. It takes a special kind of training and a lot of practice to read poetry with pleasure. It's like learning to like asparagus.

Laughter is just a slowed down scream of terror.

All children... feel a demonic sympathy with those things that cause disorder in the grown-up world.

So, without saying anything to the others, it made its way to the farthest corner of the meadow and began to toast an imaginary muffin. That was always the best way to unwind when things got to be too much for it.

Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.

Gene Wolfe has produced a work of art that can satisfy adult appetites and in which even the most fantastical elements register as poetry rather than as penny-whistle whimsy.