“One has a greater sense of intellectual degradation after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.”

“The fact is, I have been dead so long and it has been simply such a grim shoving of the hours behind mesince the hideous summer of 78, when I went down to the deep sea, its dark waters closed over ...”

“In looking back now, I see how it began in my childhood, altho I was not conscious of the necessity until 67 or 68 when I broke down first, acutely, and had violent turns of hysteria. As I lay pros...”

“The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape.”

“One has a greater sense of degradation after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.”

“It is so comical to hear oneself called old even at ninety I suppose!”

“Some experiences are universal. A girl is a girl whether she lives in West Omaha or Sweet Valley. Books are often far more than books.”

“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,And all the sweet serenity of books”

“Material things have closed boundaries; they are not accessible, cannot be penetrated, by things outside themselves. But one's existence as a spiritual being involves being and remaining oneself an...”

“Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room w...”

“Inner stillness is the key to outer strength.”