The essential dilemma of my life is between my deep desire to belong and my suspicion of belonging.

The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one another is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life.

Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated.

Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and not-belonging.

Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can.You will not regret it.

Immersing myself in Shakespeare's plays, reading them closely under the guidance of a brilliant, plain-spoken professor changed my life: It opened up the great questions; it put my petty problems into perspective. It got me out of bed in the mornings and kept me in the library late into the night.