This life's dim windows of the soul. Distorts the heavens from pole to pole. And leads you to believe a lie when you see with, not through, the eye.

Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.

To be or not to be that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

With literary biographies, you're either shelved with other biographies or next to your subject's fiction.

I write literary biographies, so above all, I have to love the subject's books. But choosing a subject is tough.

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.