In this world,” Franny once observed, “just as you’re trying to think of yourself as memorable, there is always someone who forgets that that they have met you.

What was even more germane was my study of the history of religion. It was one of the few things in school I was fascinated by.

When time passes, it's the people who knew you whom you want to see; they're the ones you can talk to. When enough time passes, what's it matter what they did to you?

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

Garp drank the beer and wondered if everything was an anticlimax.

No adult in my family would ever tell me anything about who my father was. I knew from an older cousin - only four years older than I am - everything, or what little I could discover about him.

You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know.