Before I began The Cider House Rules, I thought I wanted to write about a father-son relationship that was closer, more conflicted, and ultimately more loving, than most. Then I began to think of a relationship between an old orphanage director and an unadoptable orphan - a kid who goes out into the world and fails and keeps coming back, so that the old guy ends up with someone he's got to keep.

How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes.

The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them.

Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.

My brain is sending poison to my heart.

Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.

You can't say you're going to ban something in the name of good taste, because then you have directed someone to play the role of good-taste police. We - Americans - permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it.