At college I'd seen my dead frog's limbs twitch under some applied stimulus or other - seen, but hadn't believed. Didn't dream of thinking beyond or around what I saw.

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• James Merrill:

  Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.

• James Merrill:

  But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn't always have to speak in my own v

• James Merrill:

  I'd like to think the scientists need us - but do they? Did Newton need Blake?

• James Merrill:

  In life, there are no perfect affections.

• James Merrill:

  Knowing some Greek helped defuse forbidding words - not that I counted much on using them. You'll f

• James Merrill:

  Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication

• James Merrill:

  The simplest science book is over my head.

• Julius Boros:

  By the time you get to your ball, if you don't know what to do with it, try another sport.

• Julius Boros:

  Retire to what? I already play golf and fish for a living.

• Arnold Newman:

  Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create