I look upon another's insistence on the merits of his or her life - duties, intellect, accomplishment - and see that most of it is nonsense.

Me, my literary reputation is mostly abroad, but I am anchored here in New York. I can't think of any other place I'd rather die than here.

It is death that goes down to the center of the earth, the great burial church the earth is, and then to the curved ends of the universe, as light is said to do.

Public radio is alive and kicking, it always has been.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for. I honor my grief.

The need to understand prescription information can literally be a matter of life and death.

A martyr can never cooperate with death, go to death in a way that they're not trying to escape.