All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.

The problem with meditating is I generally go to sleep, and that's because I'm doing it wrong.

I planned my death carefully, unlike my life, which meandered along from one thing to another, despite my feeble attempts to control it.

It was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top. Falling, falling, and not knowing when you will hit.

You cannot teach somebody to write a masterpiece, but you can certainly teach them how to improve their writing skills. And you can teach them that they can make their own voices more effective by being able to communicate more clearly and forcefully. It makes people feel more capable when they can write - for instance to make a request - of a politician - and when they are able to receive a reply.

The scroll is coming back (Twitter is a scroll.)

Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera - or an NHL game.