But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds a...
Anyway—because we are readers, we don't have to wait for some communications executive to decide what we should think about next—and how we should think about it. We can fill our heads with anything f...
America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is...
All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.
People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.
You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shav...
When the last living thingHas died on account of us,How poetical it would beIf Earth could say,In a voice floating upPerhapsFrom the floorOf the Grand Canyon,
Trout was petrified there on Forty-second Street. It had given him alife not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. Thiswas a common combination on the planet Earth.
To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.
There is nothing left of him but curiosity and a pair of eyes.
The most heartbreakingly beautiful girl I ever hope to see
The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world's total population will double to 7,000,000,000 before the year 2000.I suppose they will all want dignity, I said.
So It Goes
Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory a...
Perhaps some people really are born unhappy. I surely hope not. Speaking for my sister and myself: We were born with the capacity and determination to be utterly happy all the time. Perhaps even in th...
Oh, God — the lives people try to lead.Oh, God — what a world they try to lead them in.
Nothing in this book is true.
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
It is never a mistake to say good-bye.
I was obviously born to draw better than most people, just as the widow Berman and Paul Slazinger were obviously born to tell stories better than most people can. Other people are obviously born to si...