I think authors can get into trouble viewing the subject matter as their turf

Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.

His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.

My agent and I put out my proposal one Thursday afternoon in August, 1998. Publishers started bidding immediately, and that process progressed for a few days.

I'm attracted to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it

I have to detach myself completely from aspirations. I hardly ever listen to music anymore because it arouses all of this yearning in me

My illness is excruciating and difficult to cope with. It takes over your entire life and causes more suffering than I can describe.