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

I have vertigo. Vertigo makes it feel like the floor is pitching up and down. Things seem to be spinning. It's like standing on the deck of a ship in really high seas.

I am in an altogether new world now. I can think of nothing more wonderful. It is a real touch of all that heaven means.

... character reigns preeminent in determining potential.

A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain. Louie thought: Let go.

Honestly, I expected to get a cold reception because of my subject matter. But when editors took a look at the story I had to tell, and saw that this was not a parochial story at all, they really warmed to it

While it's really hard to do, at the same time, I'm escaping my body, which I really want to do. I'm living someone else's life. I get very intensely into the story, into the interviews and the research. I'm experiencing things along with my subjects. I have a freedom I don't have in my physical life