... humanity deserved to die horribly, since it had behaved so cruelly and wastefully on a planet so sweet.

Never take liquor into the bedroom. Don't stick anything in your ears. Be anything but an architect. Live in a nice country rather than a powerful one. Power makes everybody crazy. Get somebody to teach you to play a musical instrument.

Much of the conversation in the country consisted of lines from television shows, both past and present.

Roses are red, And ready for plucking, You're sixteen, And ready for high school.

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

How complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.

My special situation was that I was the son and grandson of architects. And so I saw building. We were building the city, and that was exciting.