You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people's command of English - that's nonsense.

I am afraid of falling into hopeless despair, over my wasted life, and I am still not sure how it happened.

All observations of life are harsh, because life is. I lament that fact, but I cannot change it.

Without the protection of surliness and levity, all children would be crushed by the past—the past of others, loaded onto their shoulders. Selfishness is their saving grace.

it's doors I'm afraid of because I can't see through them, its the door opening by itself in the wind I'm afraid of.

You always think, 'Oh, if only I had a little chalet in the mountains! How great that would be and I'd do all this writing' Except, no, I wouldn't. I'd do the same amount of writing I do now and the rest of the time I'd go stir crazy. If you're waiting for the perfect moment you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There's nothing foolproof.

My brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one of us could have gone either way.