A man can't hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls.

I had discovered that learning something, no matter how complex, wasn't hard when I had a reason to want to know it.

I have never been able to understand anyone on this planet who lacks a need for knowledge. Is it not God's greatest gift to us all, this capacity to think, to wonder, to imagine?

There are two things every woman really wants: one, she wants to know that a man really loves her, and two, that he isn't going to stop.

Not much comes easy in this world, Sonny. If it does, it's best to be suspicious of it. It's probably not worth much.

I would tell people some years later that I was raised an only child and so was my brother.

Becoming a writer can kind of spoil your reading because you kind of read on tracks. You're reading as someone who wants to enjoy the book but also, as a writer, noticing the techniques that the writer uses and especially the ones that make you want to turn the page to see what happened.