The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case.

Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.

For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application why, the novel is practically the retail business all over again.

A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier.

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).

Knowledge can be powerful. But it can only be beautiful if there is more to it. If it is guided by something greater than the simple desire to enhance the potency of the mind.

Essentially, almost all humans are born with a fear of the unknown. It casts a pall of anxiety which pushes us into the arms of religions and soothsayers and their made-up answers.

You think that their dying is the worst thing that could happen. Then they stay dead.

Whoever decided that comic valentines were a good idea should have been sent away to think it over.

A few of the artists knew my name, because I have an unusual name, from Rolling Stone.

I love working out, but I need my brain to be someplace else as my body does the work.

It takes me forever to write songs most of the time.

Fame is an interesting phenomenon.

It's much easier to spend a lot of time making your microphone louder than it is working on making your message more compelling.

As everything in this world is but a sham, Death is the only sincerity.