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.

We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to.

Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever.

The short answer to 'Why do you write' is - I suppose I write for some of the same reasons I read: to live a double life; to go places I haven't been; to examine life on earth; to come to know people in ways, and at depths, that are otherwise impossible; to be surprised.

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.

And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional.