"My favorite Max Ophuls film. I love the swirling camera that mirrors the circus ring, and the ring of life. The story of Lola Montès (Martine Carol) and her many conquests, reenacted as a circus performance, narrated by ringmaster Peter Ustinov. It concludes with a death-defying plunge into a tub of water to symbolize her ultimate fall from grace."

"In my 30s when I taught college English, freshmen had to take a Great Books course, so I got to teach Oedipus and Aristotle — a real disconnect for Americans whose gods were Reason and Progress. For years I kept a black and white photo of a stone-carved head of blind Oedipus next to a photo of Ezra Pound just before his death."

"“Grief and Reason” is the book I most often return to. It contemplates death as it has been presented in prose and poetry over the ages. The book continually asks the question of whether loss creates a sense of self or destroys it. It also poses the question of whether loss or mourning can bring forth a new artistic language."