If we read books all the time we would be very unhealthy, as we would not get any fresh air, exercise, or contact with nature. Also we would not spend time with other people. There are a lot of plusses to reading - it's an interactive brain workout - but like everything else that's beneficial in moderation, overdoses can be dangerous.

We should take a lesson from the Irish potato famine: monocultures are vulnerable. Monocultures of any kind are very vulnerable, because one change and you're cooked. So we should be diversifying, wouldn't you say?

He needed to exist only in the present, without guilt, without expectation.

Craziness was considered funny, like all other things that were in reality frightening and profoundly shameful.

More and more I feel like a letter—deposited here, collected there. But a letter addressed to no one.

Publishers are in business to make money, and if your books do well they don't care if you are male, female, or an elephant.

Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.