We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

To the engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: (1) things that need to be fixed, and (2) things that will need to be fixed after you've had a few minutes to play with them. Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

The names for things don't come first. Words stagger after, hopelessly trying to become the sensation.

I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.

Before Plato could describe love, the loved one had to be invented. We would never love anybody if we could see past our invention. Bosie is my creation, my poem. In the mirror of invention, love discovered itself.

I doubt that art needed Ruskin any more than a moving train needs one of its passengers to shove it.

Well I believe in the desirability of an optimal society.