"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plain." Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries." René Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)
"Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way." E.L. Doctorow, writer (b. 1931)