There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

Paranoids are the only ones who notice things anymore.

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them.

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

The epic implications of being human end in more than this: We start our lives as if they were momentous stories, with a beginning, a middle and an appropriate end, only to find that they are mostly middles.

In novels, I said, people are transfigured by love. They’re elevated, made different, lifted out of their ordinariness…It’s not so much to ask, I said. I just want love to live up to its publicity.