Happiness, it has been observed, is best achieved by those who have been most unhappy heretofore.

Happiness when sustained too long in print can rightly be construed as sappiness…

She wrote poetry constantly; that was her “work”. She was a slow bleeder and she slaved over it for long, exhausting hours, and many a middle of a night I could hear her creaking around...

I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.

…your zeal to face life’s rough and tumble, your ardor to accept the responsibilities of adulthood is hardly congruent with the aspirations of most graduate students…’ He shook his head of disagreeable hair. ‘I need...