Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.

I think whenever we think of our hometowns, we tend to think of very specific people: with whom you rode on the school bus, who was your next door neighbor you were playing with, who your girlfriend was. It's always something very specific.

It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we really are.

Literature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.

Only in love is there trust - even the possibility of trust.

It makes me angry sometimes, it's a visceral thing--how you come to despise your own words in your ears not because they aren't genuine, but because they are; because you've said them so many times, your 'principles,' your 'ideals'--and so damned little in the world has changed because of them.