I love thrillers. I would even read certain science fiction, although I haven't been a devotee for many years.

Oh, a bookshop. Why not pop in and buy a little Kant? And perhaps just a quarter-pound of Kafka. Don't bother to wrap it, thanks. I'll eat it here.

Good art is a form of prayer. It's a way to say what is not sayable.

Baseball is a game where you are always waiting, and then when something happens it's like turning a kaleidoscope when you were a kid.

There is a lack of context in contemporary education. And contemporary consideration - because we live in those interiorities so much. Especially young kids who live by surfing the Web.

I love baseball. What I love about baseball is that you are always waiting.

The best defense is a good story.

Never use 'submit' as a verb for sending work to magazine or book publishers; say 'offer,' and never, ever submit. Keep your knees unbent. Be brave.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

I have found myself writing poetry shortly after I retired. Which I hadn't done in forty years.

I always had good students.

As sunlight is for flowers, so is love for life.

There is one thing that has disappeared, not just from the U.S. but from the entire world, is the idea of ever being embarrassed by anything.

No one's fate is of any interest to you except your own.

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.

Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you've got all the answers, then don't call what you do 'faith.'

Some folks' tongues are like the clocks as run on strikin', not to tell you the time o' the day, but because there's summat wrong i' their own inside.

You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly, way before they're ready.

The combination of both legs leads to social harmony and material abundance.

Those who have come to the United States illegally should not be given amnesty or an easier path to citizenship over those already in line.

When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner.