'One Hundred Years of Solitude' convinced me to drop out of Harvard graduate school. The novel reminded me of everything my Ph.D. program was trying to make me forget. Thank you, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I’ve always found that the better the book I’m reading, the smarter I feel, or, at least, the more able I am to imagine that I might, someday, become smarter.

Traditionally, the love of reading has been born and nurtured in high school English class

Words are the raw material out of which literature is crafted.

I remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.

When we humans speak, we are not merely communicating information but attempting to make an impression and achieve a goal.

Like most-maybe all- writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.