I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen.

There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.

Irony - The modern mode: either the devil’s mark or the snorkel of sanity.

This is what those who haven’t crossed the tropic of grief often fail to understand: the fact that someone is dead may mean that they are not alive, but doesn’t mean that they do not exist.

Start with the notion that yours is the sole responsibility unless there's powerful evidence to the contrary

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.