My life is a pitiful, mechanical thing without a past, like a little wind-up car, ready to run in any direction someone points me.

Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe. It's more like conversation, raising new questions and inspiring you to answer them for yourself.

This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.

School is about two parts ABCs to fifty parts Where Do I Stand in the Great Pecking Order of Humankind.

This is how Americans think. You believe that if something terrible happens to someone, they must have deserved it.

Does a man become a revolutionary out of the belief he's entitled to joy rather than submission?

I made it to the childbearing phase without TV dependence, then looked around and thought, Well gee, why start now? Why get a pet python on the day you decide to raise fuzzy little gerbils?