True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

That's the secret of how to enjoy writing and how to make yourself meet high standards," said Mrs. Berman. "You don't write for the whole world, and you don't write for ten people, or two. You write for just one person.

What a bummer it is to be a human being.

Rabo Karabekian: I'm in the middle of a sentence. Circe Berman: Who isn't?.

There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, I said, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.

My ancestors came over from Germany about the time of the Civil War and one of them lost a leg and went back to Germany.

It's a nice glass of champagne at the end of a life.