We English majors...need to promote public libraries as a tool in the war against terror. How many readers of Edith Wharton have engaged in terroristic acts? I challenge you to name one...Do we need to wait until our cities lie in smoking ruins before we wake up to the fact that a first-class public library is a vital link in national defense?

Bad things don't happen to writers; it's all material.

That's why God created marriage, so people wouldn't have to fight with strangers.

There was a price to be paid for being interested in fiction and in writing, pushing my family away. Books and authors became my family.

To Norwegians, the polka is a form of martial art.

Where I'm from we don't trust paper. Wealth is what's here on the premises. If I open a cupboard and see, say, thirty cans of tomato sauce and a five-pound bag of rice, I get a little thrill of well-being - much more so than if I take a look at the quarterly dividend report from my mutual fund.

My ability to keep cool in a crisis is based entirely on not knowing all the facts.