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.

The gods, after all, are only human, and once their rage has been placated they are perfectly capable of acts of mercy and grace.

Sometimes the whole world is mud luscious and puddle wonderful

A predilection for genre fiction is symptomatic of a kind of arrested development.

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.

America is a nation of liars, and for that reason science fiction has a special claim to be our national literature, as the art form best adapted to telling the lies we like to hear and to pretend we believe.

Genius is an infinite capacity for pain.