Unreason is an essential medicine as long as you do not overdose.

we must seize life because we never know how much of it remains for us, that faith is the antidote to despair and that laughter is the music of faith.

I love my editor, but that would be the definition of hell to me to live with someone and have them go page by page through my manuscript. That I want to avoid at all costs.

What doesn't quicken dies. That's an indisputable truth of life.

Home is the first refuge from - and last defense against - the disappointments and the terrors of life.

Another way to be awakened by the beauty and complexity of the word is to get a dog. Small Things like a plant that I had passed a thousand time and never given a second thought to. But the dog is curious. And the dog stops and wants to smell this and smell that. And the dog makes you look and focus and take the time.

... one of those librarians who rules the stacks with an intimidating scowl, whispers quiet sharply enough to lacerate the tender inner tissues of the ear, and will pursue an overdue-book fine with the ferocity of a rabid ferret.