I felt myself getting whiter... What does it mean to become white? How does it feel to see Death in the flesh, come to gather you in?

In a crisis the true facts are whatever other people say they are.

There are no amateurs in the world of children.

Writing is a concentrated form of thinking...a young writer sees that with words he can place himself more clearly into the world. Words on a page, that's all it takes to help him separate himself from the forces around him, streets and people and pressures and feelings. He learns to think about these things, to ride his own sentences into new perceptions.

World is supposed to mean something that's self-contained. but nothing is self-contained.

There is a world inside the world.

There's never a dearth of reasons to shoot at the President.