Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.

All the worry people expend over not existing after they die, yet nary a one ever seems to spare a moment to worry about not having existed before they were conceived. Or at all. After all, one sperm over and we would have been our sisters, and we'd never have been missed.

As the week wore on, Ivan contemplated the merits of inertia as a problem-solving technique with growing favor

Our children change us... whether they live or not.

There is a sad disconnectedness that overcomes a library when its owner is gone.

Miles added it to his life's lessons list. Call it Rule 27B. Never make key tactical decisions while having electro-convulsive seizures.

There is no more hollow feeling than to stand with your honor shattered at your feet while soaring public reputation wraps you in rewards. That's soul-destroying. The other way around is merely very, very irritating.