I was not surprised to wake up alive. I suppose one is surprised only when one awakens dead. - Dan Simmons

One of the few benefits of the fall of civilization as we know it, he says, is that there are private cellars with fine vintages everywhere one digs. It is not theft. It is archaeology.

After fifty-five years of dedicating his life and work to the story of ethical systems, Sol Weintraub had come to a single, unshakable conclusion: any allegiance to a deity or concept or universal principal (sic) which put obedience above decent behavior toward an innocent human being was evil.

Belief in one’s identity as a poet or writer prior to the acid test of publication is as naive and harmless as the youthful belief in one’s immortality...and the inevitable disillusionment is just as painful.