The gardener had a dread of small women; he'd always imagined them to have an anger disproportionate to their size.

You can't say you're going to ban something in the name of good taste, because then you have directed someone to play the role of good-taste police. We - Americans - permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it.

Among adults – and among orphans – Wilbur Larch noted that delirious happiness was rare.

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language

If you feel so strongly about what's on television, don't have one.

YOU LET ME DROWN!” Owen said. “YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING! YOU JUST WATCHED ME DROWN! I’M ALREADY DEAD!” he told us. “REMEMBER THAT: YOU LET ME DIE.