And often the worst thing wasn't the victims--they were dead, after all, and beyond any more pain. The worst thing was those who loved them and survived them. Often the walking dead from now on, shell-shocked, hearts ruptured, stumbling through the remainder of their lives without anything left inside of them but blood and organs, impervious to pain, having learned nothing except that the worst things did, in fact, sometimes happen. (Mystic River)

What molds us is what maims us.

The foundation of your life is luck. Hard work and talent make up the difference.

This world can only give me reminders of what I don't have, can never have, didn't have for long enough.

The best thing that can happen to people entering creative professions is the dwindling of all other possibilities.

A pretty face had been damaged by acne scars and she wore and extra forty pounds on her frame like a threat. Her eyes were dull with anger disguised as apathy. If she kept on her current path, she'd grow into the type of person who fed her kids Doritos for breakfast and purchased angry bumper stickers with lots of exclamation points. But right now, she was just another in a long line of pissed-off small-town girls with a shitty outlook.

Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.