When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I often read poetry. – Nicholson Baker
Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It is fact-encirclingly huge, and it is idiosyncratic, careful, messy, funny, shocking and full of simmering controversies – and it is free, and it is fast. – Nicholson Baker
So I really began as a failed poet – although when I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by reading poetry. – Nicholson Baker
Footnotes are the finer-suckered surfaces that allow testicular paragraphs to hold fast to the wider reality of the library. – Nicholson Baker
It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label. – Barack Obama