It is amazing to me, now, how such wild imaginings and philosophies - inspired by a night charged with frights and calamities - made such perfectly good sense to Owen Meany and me, but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.

I've always been slow but I'm even slower now. I'm more into the waiting, or I guess I'm more patient about the waiting.

What a phrase that is: 'that explains everything!' I know better than to think anything 'explains everything' today.

It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.

Crazy people made him crazy. It was as if he personally resented them giving into madness - in part, because he so frequently labored to behave sanely. When some people gave up the labor of sanity, or failed at it, Garp suspected them of not trying hard enough.

Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.