“Somehow, when a person you like reads your poem and says they like it, the poem seems all fresh and new afterwards. I wonder why?”

“Everytime we use an invention or read a book or study a science or listen to music, we’re enjoying someone else’s idea— someone who may have lived thousands of years ago, and thousands of miles away from here.”

“Books and people are alike in one respect: they're both full of thoughts.”

“When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.”

“There is an old Jewish story, an ordinary Jewish joke. A father was teaching his little son to be less afraid and have more courage. “Jump,” he said, “and I will catch you.” And the little boy trusted him and the little boy jumped. And when his father caught him he felt filled with love. And when he didn’t, he was filled with something else…something more. Life. (From the movie 'Then She Found Me.')”

“That's how it was on Irving Circle and how I was raised: You made the best out of what was within reach, which meant friendships engineered by parents and by the happenstance of housing. I stayed with it because we both had queenly older sisters who rarely condescended to play with us, because Shelley was adopted and I was not, because Shelley had Clue and Life, and I did not”

“I will not be quoting Hemingway anytime soon, nor will I ever read another one of his books.And if he were still alive, I would write him a letter right now and threaten to strangle him dead with my bare hands just for being so glum.No wonder he put a gun to his head, like it says in the introductory essay.”