Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can't even remember having met you

She was an expert at the art of sudden appearance.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.

But I felt certain that if the world would stop indulging wars and famines and other perils, it would be possible for human beings to embarrass each other to death. Our self-destruction might take a little longer that way, but I believe it would be no less complete.

I have a very poor record at multiple choice questions.

I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.

When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother's hand, his fingers could see in the dark.