Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.

It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound.

Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my limited abilities, but his decidedly philosophical stance about how to conduct your life, what you should do to compensate for your limitations. This was essential to me, both as a student - and not a good one - and as a wrestler who was not a natural athlete but who had found something he loved.

Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel.

when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.

In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss.

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.