No one knows what cuases an outer landscape to become an inner one.
The writer can only explore the inner space of his characters by perceptively navigating his own.
He resented such questions as people do who have thought a great deal about them. The superficial and slipshod have ready answers, but those looking this complex life straight in the eye acquire a wealth of perception so composed of delicately balanced contradictions that they dread, or resent, the call to couch any part of it in a bland generalization. The vanity (if not outrage) of trying to cage this dance of atoms in a single definition may give the weariness of age with the cry of youth for answers the appearance of boredom.
"You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus. " "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not. " "For children. " "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish. " "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing. "
I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best -- it's all they'll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money -- provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don't need it.
The trouble with treating people as equals is that the first thing you know they may be doing the same thing to you.
Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.
Repentance is the virtue of weak minds.
My neighborhood is fairly white, yet the local middle school is all black. It is bad. It is very bad.
I had a student once come up to me and we were talking about this incident, and, of course, I never had the right thing to say. But later on, I realized I should have said: Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.
I never forget,” Myrnin said in a choked whisper. “Certainly not with your nails in my throat. They’re quite an excellent mnemonic device.