• "I don't know the details of this story. Nor do I much care."
• "I put my mother against the wall and I shot her." Giving an example of a poem about human relationships.
• "There are disorders of civilization in Hemingway, but there don't seem to be any eating disorders."
• “There’s someone I’ve talked to art about for years… In fact, I don’t talk to him anymore because it’s so boring.”
• "I have a friend who collects barns."
• “I love the Pacific, because it’s full of psychic material! You know, dreams.” paraphrasing Moby-Dick
• Teacher: “It’s sink or swim, and drowning is not an option. Right?”

Student: “I don’t know how it could be sink or swim if drowning is not an option.”

• "I tightened my tie and now I can't breathe anymore."
• "Is there a way of talking about daydreams?"
• “Did any of you watch the Colbert Report last night? You? Yes? Did you see Harvey Mansfield? Ha! Ha! Ha! It was pathetic. Poor Harvey Mansfield was shaking like a bunny rabbit. In any case…”
• “When he’s fighting those windmills, he really thinks they’re giants.” (begins yelling at girl) “He really sees that! He really sees that!”
• “You’re more than that person sitting here in blue jeans and a t-shirt, listening to me go on and on! You have a destiny, and a beginning, and a beginning to that beginning.”
• “They’re a slave race! That’s what they are!” on domesticated animals