Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I dont mind occasionally having to reinvent a wheel; I dont even mind using someones reinvented wheel occasionally. But it helps a lot if it is symmetric, contains no fewer than ten sides, and has the axle centered. I do tire of trapezoidal wheels with offset axles. – Joseph Newcomer
[T]he cherub, alas, proved to be pasted on tough gingerbread which was too hard for many to bite into. – Vladimir Nabokov, The Gift, 1963, translated from Russian by Michael Scammell
As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful. – Ayelet Waldman
