Half my life is an act of revision; more than half the act is performed with small changes.

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.

He wished he could arrange a maiming as a kind of moral lesson

It is exhausting to be seventeen and not know who you are.

No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.

Newspapers are even worse for me than ice cream; headlines, and the big issues that generate the headlines, are pure fat.