“A scholar is committed to building on knowledge that others have gathered, correcting it, confirming it, enlarging it. ”

“We need a coat with two pockets. In one pocket there is dust, and in the other pocket there is gold. We need a coat with two pockets to remind us who we are.”

“Humility is the only lens though which great things can be seen--and once we have seen them, humility is the only posture possible.”

“Why does a literary scholar study the world of "fiction"? To show us that the facts can never be understood except in communion with the imagination.”

“Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”

“The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them.”

“You seem to look upon depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush you…Do you think you could see it instead as the hand of a friend, pressing you down to the ground on which it is safe to stand?”