"Literature is eavesdropping...." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.”

“Life is too short to waste.”

“Ten percent of people can think, another ten percent of people think that they think, and eighty percent of people would rather die than be made to think.”

“There is only one expert who is qualified to examine the souls and the life of a people and make a valuable report - the native novelist. ... And when a thousand able novels have been written, there you have the soul of the people; and not anywhere else can these be had.”

“Homer is my example and his unchristened heart.”

“Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. ...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about.”

“The rain to the wind said, You push and I'll pelt.' They so smote the garden bed That the flowers actually knelt, And lay lodged--though not dead. I know how the flowers felt.”

“The man in the street does not know a star in the sky.”

“Either he's dead or my watch has stopped.”