Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky.

The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in him which escapes analysis that makes him first-rate.

In other searchings it might be the object of the quest that brought satisfaction, or it might be something incidental that one got on the way; but in religion, desire was fulfilment, it was the seeking itself that rewarded.

One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away.

I had killed a big snake. I was now a big fellow.

People can be lovers and enemies at the same time, you know.

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.