…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.

If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

I think that was when the headmaster realized he had lost; he realized then that he was finished. Because, what could he do? Was he going to tell us to stop praying? We kept our heads bowed; and we kept praying. Even as awkward as he was, the Rev. Mr. Merrill had made it clear to us that there was no end to praying for Owen Meany.

He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.

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

Being wrong about important things is exhausting.