Keep passing the open windows.

Life," Garp wrote, "is sadly not structured like a good old-fashioned novel. Instead an end occurs when those who are meant to peter out have petered out. All that is left is memory. But even a nihilist has memory.

. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .

I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

Wrestling was my first success, the first thing that confirmed that I could be good at anything. Devoting yourself to wrestling, or tennis, or skiing, or dance, or to a musical instrument is a longing to be disciplined for a purpose.

You can't learn everything you need to know legally.

This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.