You do not have to explain every single drop of water contained in a rain barrel. You have to explain one drop-H2O. The reader will get it.

One day we will all cherish the memory of having blacksmiths on every corner.

I'm a bad, inconsistent person, but at least I'm not a member of the Tea Party griping incoherently about too much government, but flashing my Medicare card every other day to a doctor because I'm 400 pounds overweight.

Gilles Deleuze believed that every society needed a madman so we could feel better about ourselves. I do my best to fill that role.

Think about all the selfish non-smokers out there, driving around on asphalt, drinking water out of the tap, not even thinking about how smokers' taxes help pay for it all.

There's a ton of truth in Flannery O'Connor's notion that "Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk-away from any open flames-to remind yourself that if you don't write daily, you will get rusty.