I have my own dying empire to contend with, and I do not wish for any other.

I was really not a good student, and I felt that shame every day. That's one of the reasons I started smoking pot and drinking daily.

My parents were constantly afraid they would lose their jobs. The idea that we were always a paycheck away from disaster was drilled into me.

If my mother hadn't tried to sell me chicken Kiev cutlets for $1.40 after I graduated from college, maybe I would've been the lawyer she wanted me to be.

The radio station was playing Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a sure sign that things were much worse than they appeared.

Reading is difficult. People just aren't meant to read anymore. We're in a post-literate age. You know, a visual age. How many years after the fall of Rome did it take for a Dante to appear? Many, many years.

freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity.