“If a writer rewrites an essay, people who read the new version are unlikely to complain that their thoughts have been broken by some newly introduced incompatibility.”

“What is reading, in the last analysis, but an interchange of thought between writer and reader? If the book enters the reader's mind just as it left the writer's -- without any of the additions and modifications inevitably produced by contact with a new body of thought -- it has been read to no purpose.”

“To get the most attention, the essay should be wrong. Logical essays are read and understood. But an illogical or wrong essay will prompt dozens of other writers to rise and respond, thus giving the author mounds of publicity.”

“Now I see that the journey was never meant to lead to some new and improved version of me; that it has always been about coming home to who I already am.”

“Into the paradise of euphony, the good poet must introduce hell. Broken paradises are the only kind worth reading.”

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.”