The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before, and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.

You went out with a girl at first because the sheer sight of her made you weak in the knees. You fell in love and were desperate not to let her get away. And yet the more you thought about her, the less you knew who she was. The hope was that love transcended all differences. That was the hope.

That was the deal basically: catatonia without; frenzy within

There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.

In the end, it wasn't death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life.

If Mitchell was ever going to become a good Christian, he would have to stop disliking people so intensely.

girls forbidden to dance would only attract husbands with bad complexions and sunken chests.