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

The more clearly one sees this world; the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.

Nothing moves at the Hotel New Hampshire! We're screwed down here-for life!

I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye.

I don't begin a novel until I have written, not just the last sentence, but usually, as a result thereof, many of the surrounding final paragraphs, so that in addition to knowing what happens, I know what the voice is.

Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.