I am vain, or once was, and one of my vanities was to feign that I was not.

Worse, the deadly accuracy of filial faultfinding is facilitated by access, by trust, by willing disclosure, and so constitutes a double betrayal.

In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

It was important to me to put together a future history that would scan, and serve as the backdrop to the domestic story. Economics is really what drives the plot.

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.

I am vain, or once was, and one of my vanities was to feign that I was not.

...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate.