A novelist needs to know his own strong points and weak points.

False modesty can be worse than arrogance.

I lost my balance when the train pulled away, but a human crumple zone buffered my fall. We stayed like that, half fallen. Diagonal People.

Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.

I'm from a time and place where bigheadedness was a really savage crime, and you'd get cut down for it by your peers and parents.

Don't remember summer even saying goodbye.

A weapon men use against women is the refusal to take them seriously.