I Read In Order To Write. I

One Must Avoid Ambition In Order To Write. Otherwise Something Else Is The Goal: Some Kind Of Power Beyond The Power Of Language. And The Power Of Language, It Seems To Me, Is The Only Kind Of Power A Writer Is Entitled To.

It Is The Function Of A Liberal University Not To Give Right Answers, But To Ask Right Questions.

... Woman Is Frequently Praised As The More "creative" Sex. She Does Not Need To Make Poems, It Is Argued; She Has No Drive To Make Poems, Because She Is Privileged To Make Babies. A Pregnancy Is As Fulfilling As, Say, Yeats' Sailing To Byzantium.... To Call A Child A Poem May Be A Pretty Metaphor, But It Is A Slur On The Labor Of Art.

I Wanted To Use What I Was, To Be What I Was Born To Be - Not To Have A 'career', But To Be That Straightforward Obvious Unmistakable Animal, A Writer.

What Was Lost In The European Cataclysm Was Not Only The Jewish Past--the Whole Life Of A Civilization--but Also A Major Share Ofthe Jewish Future.... [ellipsis In Source] It Was Not Only The Intellect Of A People In Its Prime That Was Excised, But The Treasure Of A People In Its Potential.