"Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked."

"Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another."

"Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him."

"No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

"A resilient spirit knows that the silence between the notes creates the music."

"Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques."

"The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails."

"The pursuit of excellence requires knowing that the silence between the notes creates the music."