Jay Parini

“In dreams begin possibilities.”

“Poetry is a language adequate to one's experience.”

“All writers would like to be overrated in their own lifetimes.”

“Fictional characters soon take on a life of their own. They run with the bit between their teeth.”

“...and he realized that he missed the old days of sailing, the ship almost willowy and hesitant, responsive to winds and weathers - not this hard, unthinking, mechanical drive toward a goal or destinations, so typical of the age itself.”

“A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements.”

“It is not an easy thing to alter the trajectory of your life. People have expectations on your behalf. You come to believe them yourself.”

“Believe me, if you’re a teenager, you’re always in the damned woods. Literally, you’re in the woods — probably too much you’re in the woods. And metaphorically you’re in the woods, in your life.”