“If you put everyone else first you'll always be last, but if you always put yourself first you will never last.”

“Life is what happens in-between writing; almost always a necessary inconvenience.”

“...they were always going somewhere yet seemingly nowhere, some house, some club, some river, some place, all fixed by a nowhere ring of familiar faces.”

“She danced alone with her eyes closed, and seemed to move to a beat more powerful than what ears alone could hear.”

“I studied history in college, and I've always enjoyed reading, especially political biographies, and I can state that in all my studies and all my experiences, I have come across just one truly honest politician: my great-grandfather, William Eichner. ... According to my grandmother, when he was elected to the General Assembly, he stopped going to religious services and never set foot in a church during his two terms in office, stating, "You can't serve God and politics at the same time".”

“Play to your strength; then you are always strong.”

“Several notes were missing. They had always been missing, except for two that I had levered out with a poker when three...The anticipated thrill of a missing G or an E Flat was like a good joke, told again and again, always fresh. I believe that my present feeling for silences and emptinesses dates from those sing-songs, the awaited non-note on the beat.”