Heroism often results as a response to extreme events.

Metaphors hide in plain sight, and their influence is largely unconscious. We should mind our metaphors, though, because metaphors make up our minds.

Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.

Aphorisms are literature's hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.

London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities, especially American ones like New York and Chicago, are laid out in straight lines. Like the circuits on computer chips, there are a lot of right angles in cities like this. But London is a glorious mess. It evolved from a score or so of distinct villages, that merged and meshed as their boundaries enlarged. As a result, London is a labyrinth, full of turnings and twistings just like a brain.

A simile is just a metaphor with the scaffolding still up.

Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.