I, like most of my friends, couldn't believe I bought a mountain called Misery Mountain, because it was so appropriate.

I'm a fairly ascetic person. And I do most of my writing at night. You don't get distracted, your brain goes into what you are writing about, into the world you're writing about, rather than into the world you're in.

The definition of terrorism is killing civilians with the intent of changing their political affiliation.

Imagine, [Kriezler] said, that you enter a large, somewhat crumbling hall that echoes with the sounds of people mumbling and talking repetitively to themselves. All around you these people fall into prostrate positions, some of them weeping. Where are you? Sara’s answer was immediate: in an asylum. Perhaps, Kreizler answered, but you could also be in a church. In the one place the behavior would be considered mad; in the other, not only sane, but as respectable as any human activity can be.

Absolutely nothing brings out the killer instinct in the upper crust of New York Society like a charity function.

Scientists' minds may jump around like amorous toads, but they do seem to accept such behavior in one another.

Still, it's an interesting technique-leaving one person behind in order to find her or him somewhere else. And in someone else.