By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.

It's natural for a child to assume that his or her own childhood is unremarkable.

The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore.

I came from an anxious, overly intense East Coast academic family. That was the way of our tribe.

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.

I used to write in a local coffee shop, but there was another guy, another writer, who kept sitting in my favorite seat. I would show up, and he would be there, and I would get exiled to a couch or something, and it would throw me off my game.