All I can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is always only approximate.

I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.

Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.

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.

How easy it is, treachery. You just slide into it.

You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.

Each form has its pluses and its minuses.