Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.

What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.

It's as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you're living in some kind of spiritual wasteland under the guidance of CNN and Walmart.

The most unbearable thing about many successful people is not - as we flatteringly think - how lazy they are, but how hard they work.

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.