"Music and books were my inspiration too. I read avidly as a kid. And that's the beautiful thing about books and music and even movies, is that you can actually escape. You can go into other worlds."

“In art, we are the first heirs of all the earth. . . . Accidents impair and Time transforms, but it is we who choose.”

“A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water.”

Source : Attributed to Ames, speaking in the House of Representatives, 1795; quoted by R. W. Emerson in 'Essays' (2nd series, 1844) no. 7, but not traced in Ames's speeches

“Freedom is not nurtured by nations preparing for war.”

Source : William Appleman Williams, Henry W. Berger (1992). “A William Appleman Williams reader: selections from his major historical writings”, Ivan R Dee

“My first ball I ever got from a Big League player I actually got to purchase in Dodger Stadium in a silent auction, was Reggie Jackson.”

Source : "Pedro Martinez slams Don Zimmer again for 2003 bout, Zim admits fault". Interview with Adam Rubin, www.nydailynews.com. October 29, 2009.

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”

“Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.”

“Our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story (say, a man with a beard on a cloud) is true or not true. But with Possibilianism I'm hoping to define a new position - one that emphasizes the exploration of new, unconsidered possibilities. Possibilianism is comfortable holding multiple ideas in mind; it is not interested in committing to any particular story.”

Source : "Stray Questions for: David Eagleman". Interview with Blake Wilson, artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. July 10, 2009.

“Unrecognized alcoholism is the ruling pathology among writers and intellectuals.”

Source : Diana Trilling (1993). “The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling”, Harcourt