Another friend mentioned a man she’d been dating, whose erotic repertoire included withdrawing his member at key moments to thump it on her. After puzzling over it with friends, she finally figured out: It’s a porn move. Listen, if you’re a professional showing off his stuff for the camera, that sort of thing almost makes sense. Out of context, however, it’s another situation entirely. You know what description you never want a woman you’ve slept with to apply to your sexual technique? “Baffling.

— Mary Elizabeth Williams

It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

— William Faulkner in this Nobel acceptance speech