We live in all we seek.

The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write.

I woke at intervals until . . . the intervals of waking tipped the scales, and I was more often awake than not.

When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly excited at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive a gift in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. . . . I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.

The Pulitzer is more useful than meaningful.

No one escapes the wilderness on the way to the promised land.

How you spend your days is how you spend your life.