A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference. It pardons shortcomings, it consoles failure.

People a thousand years from now - this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our living and in our dying.

I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise.

The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself "Oh now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home. And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.