We've learned to see the world in gasps.

My favorite author's question of all time - because it's so simple to answer ... 'Is your hair really like that, or do you get it done?

There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.

If he wants to be an asshole, it's a free country. Millions before him have made the same life choice.

Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes, which in turn create ever more dangerous messes. Hope elects the politician with the biggest empty promise; and as any stockbroker or lottery seller knows, most of us will take a slim hope over prudent and predictable frugality. Hope, like greed, fuels the engine of capitalism.

Once in a while, Jimmy would make up a word but he never once got caught out. ... He should have been pleased by his success with these verbal fabrications, but instead he was depressed by it. The memos telling him he'd done a good job meant nothing to him; all they proved was that no one was capable of appreciating how clever he had been. He came to understand why serial killers sent helpful clues to the police.

Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.