Every day we make our way through a moral forest, along pathways ever branching. Often we get lost. When the array of paths before us is so perplexing that we can't make a choice, or won't, we can hope that we will be given a sign to guide us. A reliance on signs, however, can lead to the evasion of all moral obligations, and thus earn a terrible judgment.

I never discuss a novel while I'm writing it, for fear that talking about it will diminish my desire to write it.

I have learned a great deal from novels. Some of it is even true.

Vladimir Nabokov said the two great evils of the 20th century were Marx and Freud. He was absolutely correct.

Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.

No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make.

Each reader needs to bring his or her own mind and heart to the text.