I loved almost everything about being a teacher, but I was an unusual teacher

Pain is an interesting and off-putting thing. Few if any things in life concentrate our attention so completely and terribly, and few things are more boring to listen to or read about.

Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.

Wilkie Collins was a rival and competitor of Dickens. His novel Moonstone sold more copies at the time than Dickens' last two books. But that meant nothing in the long run. Right now, to be honest, Wilkie Collins is what he deserved to be back then: a footnote, an almost lost memory. And he knew he would become that.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed

As for the depiction of the Catholic church, it's not meant to be a prediction

No one inspired me to write, but writer Harlan Ellison terrified me into getting published.