How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself. - Gore Vidal

Always beware of the fact, that the only thing hindering an all out revolution is your fear of losing the scraps they throw at you. — Twitter post, July 29, 2012

...because academics everywhere are forever attacking one another, and I had long since learned that one must never believe what a teacher says of another.

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.