Every human being must find his own way to cope with severe loss, and the only job of a true friend is to facilitate whatever method he chooses.

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

People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause them anxiety

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

I was a pretty angry kid, and I got into military history largely as a way to vent my own anger. As I got older it narrowed down to a more specific focus on individual violence. I'm just trying to understand where it came from.

I wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer when I was a kid. If you had told me I would be an artist or novelist when I grew up, I would have laughed in your face

It didn’t make any more sense to me then than it does now, how life can pile troubles up on a man what don’t deserve them, while letting some of the biggest jackasses and scoundrels alive waltz their way through long, untroubled existences.