The sweetness of life lies in dispensing with formalities.
[To] me organized religion, the formalities and routines, [is] like being marched in formation to look at a sunset.
In statesmanship get formalities right, never mind about the moralities.
A lot of my writing is not terribly civilized. Sometimes I listen to songs by very smart writers who assume that the world is a civil place with certain formalities that people follow, but I don't see things that way. My own experience tells me that life is not like that. That's why I write the way I do.
It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.
If the only way a library can offer an Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity in a way that has never been seen before because there are no formalities.