"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

"Conventional nudes based on classical originals could bear no burden of thought or inner life without losing their formal completeness."

"When you begin to read a poem you are entering a foreign country whose laws and language and life are a kind of translation of your own; but to accept it because its stews taste exactly like your old …"

"You want to have a meaningful life? Everything you do matters. That's the definition of a meaningful life. But everything you do matters. You're going to have to carry that with you."

"No longer be one of the many job-hunters who are blinded by your ignorance and self-confidence, who after a lengthy period of unemployment still feel that the world owes them a living."