Foreignness is all around. Only in the heart of the heart of the country, namely the heart of the United States, can you avoid such a thing. In the center of an empire, you can think of your experience as universal. Outside the empire or on the fringes of the empire, you cannot.

I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.

Paper isn’t important. It’s the words on them that are important.

...and nostalgia swept through Jimmy like a sudden hunger.

You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it.

Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been.

I myself discovered many authors through school reading lists and through school anthologies. The positives are: young readers can find the world opening up to them through books they study. The negatives may include bad experiences kids have - if they don't like the book or the teacher, or the way the book is taught.