I am not comfortable with abstract writing, stories that look like essays: you have to see, I need to see.

People in free societies don't have to fear the pathology of the state. We create our own frenzy, our own mass convulsions, driven by thinking machines that we have no final authority over. The frenzy is barely noticeable most of the time. It's simply how we live.

I hate my life. I'm at the point where I want to hear about other people's lives. it's like switching from fiction to biography.

Clouds are no deterrent. Clouds intensify the drama, trap and shape the light.

Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn.

History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of collected knowledge, took faith from the solid and availing stuff of our experience. Even if we believe that history is a workwheel powered by human blood -- read the speeches of Mussolini -- at least we've known the thing together. A single narrative sweep, not ten thousand wisps of disinformation. (82)

It's true that some of us become better writers by living long enough. But this is also how we become worse writers. The trick is to die in between.