Every fall I imagine once again that something wonderful will happen at a party. This is like imagining that the telephone book will prove to be a wonderful novel.

Suppose, deep down, you suspect that you are dull, and your public works are a form of vengeance. You talk a good poem, and think by numbers. Once upon a time,…

When the state murders, it assumes an authority I refuse to concede: the authority of perfect knowledge in final things.

In God's body shop, each of us was customized. But science came along to substitute statistical inference for free will. We are now a tribe of likelihoods.

For tho' I know he loves me, To-night my heart is sad; His kiss was not so wonderful As all the dreams I had.

This is unfortunately a world in which things find it difficult, frequently impossible, to live up to their names.

Yes, I don't know why, but I have never been disappointed, and I often was in the early days, without feeling at the same time, or a moment later, an undeniabl…