No illusion is more crucial than the illusion that great success and huge money buy you immunity from the common ills of mankind, such as cars that won't start.

I never met a soul in this world as normal as me.

You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analagous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two.

-she remembered them kindly, for there was a sweetness in boys that didn't last long, once they became men.

The older the violin, the sweeter the music.

You can scare off a lot of cowboys just by looking mean, I guess.

Mystery is underrated, and understanding is overrated.