Literature deeply stands opposed to the dominant value system-the one that rewards money and power. Writers are on the other side-they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are of deep importance but can’t afford airtime in a commercialized, status-consciou s, and cynical world.

We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

The dream of the news is that it makes us care about other people and situations. But we cannot identify with people to whom we haven't been introduced. Humans will only respond to art, to people who are skilled in making you care.

The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.

The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.

As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.