It is never persuasive to argue that you are not the kind of person who does what you are actually doing.

You were ambitious - for your life, what it was like when you woke up in the morning, and not for some attainment. Like most people who did not answer a particular calling from an early age, you placed work beside yourself; any occupation would fill up your day but not your heart. I liked that about you. I liked it enormously.

Everything people do that doesn’t work has to be somebody else’s fault. Next time you know, geezers’ll be suing the government for getting old and kids’ll be taking their mommies to court because they came out ugly.

Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment.

I was suffering from the delusion that it's the thought that counts.

Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.

For the living, death is thievery.