In real life as in grand opera, arias only make hopeless situations worse.

American Rifleman and Field & Stream had ads for "varmint guns." Another varmint was a ground hog because a horse would be going along and he'd stick his foot in a ground hog hole and break his leg. So we were trying to prevent that, too. But we finally scared ourselves. We didn't realize we were nuts.

Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind.

This person has just arrived on this planet, knows nothing about it, has no standards by which to judge it. This person does not care what it becomes. It is eager to become absolutely anything it is supposed to be.

Literature is by definition opinionated. It is bound to provoke the arguments in many quarters, not excluding the hometown or even the family of the author.

There's only one me, and I'm stuck with him.

I'm odd, I know,' he said. 'It's fear of myself that's made me odd.