Dear Sir, poor sir, brave sir." he read, "You are an experiment by the Creator of the Universe. You are the only creature in the entire Universe who has free will. You are the only one who has to figure out what to do next - and why. Everybody else is a robot, a machine. Some persons seem to like you, and others seem to hate you, and you must wonder why. They are simply liking machines and hating machines. You are pooped and demoralized, " read Dwayne. "Why wouldn't you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable.

Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

He was a graduate of West Point, which is military academy that turns young men into homicidal maniacs for use in war.

She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies.

Is there nothing I have done which will outlive me, other than the opprobrium of my first wife and sons and grandchildren? Do I care? Doesn't everybody? Poor me. Poor practically everybody, with so little durable good to leave behind!

It's the writer's job to stage confrontations, so the characters will say surprising and revealing things, and educate and entertain us all.

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.