The only way my head was going truly somewhere else was to travel to a different life and not a different airport.

Half an ear cocked, something in me, all night, every night, is waiting for you to come home.

I was mortified by the prospect of becoming hopelessly trapped in someone else's story.

Notoriety is cheap. It's just easier to get noticed by doing something bad.

We'd been assured it wouldn't be painful, though she might experience 'discomfort,' a term beloved of the medical profession that seems to be a synonym for agony that isn't yours.

The pediatrician must have thought me one of those neurotic mothers who craved distinction for her child but who in our civilization's latter-day degeneracy could only conceive of the exceptional in terms of deficiency or affliction.

Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether.