“Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy... or they become legend. ”

“Isabel saw all their lives becoming history in units of days and nights so fatally private there was no one left for her to love.”

“Suits obviously had helped to promote bad government and he was as guilty as anyone for wearing them so steadfastly for twenty years. Of late he had become frightened of the government for the first time in his life, the way the structure of democracy had begun debasing people rather than enlivening them in their mutual concern. The structure was no longer concerned with the purpose for which it was designed, and a small part of the cause, Nordstrom thought, was probably that all politicians and bureaucrats wore suits.”

“(from: Age Sixty-nine)Often, lately, the night is a cold mawand stars the scattered white teeth of the gods, which spare none of us. At dawn I have birds, clearly divine messengers that I don't understandyet day by day feel the grace of their intentions.”

“My advice is, do not try to inhabit another's soul. You have your own.”

“A poet must discover that it’s his own story that is true, even if the truth is small indeed.”

“We set this house on fire forgetting that we live within. ”