Travel. It was an intransitive verb. It didn't involve any destinations. It was going to the going's sake, to be anywhere but where you were, with motion itself as the only object.

Trouble defies the law of gravity. It's easier to pick up than to drop.

Seattle is this curious liberal island.

Books admitted me to their world open-handedly, as people for their most part, did not. The life I lived in books was one of ease and freedom, worldly wisdom, glitter, dash and style.

I ain't sleeping. I'm just taking a good look at the insides of my eyelids.

Seattle is a liberal city, its politics not so much blue in the American, not the British, sense as deep ultramarine, and its manners are studiously polite.

In an underdeveloped country don't drink the water. In a developed country don't breathe the air.