Books do pretend …but squeezed in between is even more that is true—without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see?

‘Pity without rigor would be cowardly egotism, mere sentimentality.’

A man was leaning idly against an elm. … The man, who towered over the poet even at his slanting angle, too old for a student and too worn for a faculty member, stared at...

‘Yes, we rather condemn people for eternity without the courtesy of informing them.’