It is not my fault that my parents own the world's largest collection of black Santas.

It's not life or death, the labyrinth. Suffering. Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you.

It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.

The whole pleasure of being in a state of unknowing is that as long as you don’t know, all possible outcomes feel as if they are happening.

So she became impulsive, scared by her inaction into perpetual action.

I don't think you're dying," I said. "I think you've just got a touch of cancer. He smiled. Gallows humor.

You know how we make a Scotch and water in this home?" "No, sir," Gus said. "We pour Scotch into a glass and then call to mind thoughts of water, and then we mix the actual Scotch with the abstracted idea of water.