But if you tell folks you're a college student, folks are so impressed. You can be a student in anything and not have to know anything. Just say toxicology or marine biokinesis, and the person you're talking to will change the subject to himself. If this doesn't work, mention the neural synapses of embryonic pigeons.

In a city this size, every year, hundreds of husbands walk away. Kids leave home. Wives escape. People disappear.

Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains.

My whole life is about forgetting. It's my most valuable job skill.

Peter used to say that an artist’s job is to make order out of chaos. You collect details, look for a pattern, and organize. You make sense out of senseless facts. You puzzle together bits of everything. You shuffle and reorganize. Collage. Montage. Assemble.

Some writers research in order to write. I write in order to research topics that interest me. Especially if I can meet with other people, in forums from illness support groups to phone-sex hotlines, and learn what other people know best.

Imagine how you’d feel if your whole life turned into a job you couldn’t stand.