I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.

shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us

If what we want to do is promote reading and writing and publishing and making sure this is a business that keeps going - because it is a business! It's not just an art - then we have to take responsibility. I get sort of crazy and frothy when I think about this. It really matters.

I don't really do anything with the Internet except check my email. I have a much higher opinion of humanity because of that.

I know where I'm going. And if I don't know where I'm going, I don't tend to get anywhere.

But we cannot unbraid the story of another person’s life and take out all the parts that don’t suit our purposes and put forth only the ones that do.

Happiness compresses time, makes it dense and bright, pocketsized.