He says his aim is poetry. One does not aim at poetry with pistols. At poets, perhaps.

The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.

I've lost all capacity for disbelief. I'm not sure that I could even rise to a little gentle scepticism.

From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I've liked puns, word jokes, I can literally recall looking at a comic at the age of six or seven and I remember what I enjoyed and what it was precisely and how the joke worked.

If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.

And for the last three minutes on the wind of a windless day I have heard the sound of drums and flute.

You can persuade a man to believe almost anything provided he is clever enough, but it is much more difficult to persuade someone less clever.