If a stranger taps you on the ass and says, "How's the little lady today!" you will probably cringe. But if he's an American, he's only being friendly.

What a lost person needs is a map of the territory, with his own position marked on it so he can see where he is in relation to everything else.

EXTINCTATHON, Monitored by MaddAddam. Adam named the living animals, MaddAddam names the dead ones. Do you want to play?

Within one's own family, money is not the measure of things, unless the person is an absolute Scrooge. Only the most extreme kind of monster would put a price on everything.

All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.

I was warped early by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe. I was very fond of Franz Kafka.

Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.