Not returning phone calls is the severest form of torture in the civilized world.

I was aware now, as ever, that between all people there were First Times You See Them and Last Times you See Them.

I haven't always been a writer and I suppose I tiptoed around the idea of writing full time, because it's so isolating.

Always live your life with your biography in mind," Dad was fond of saying. "Naturally, it won't be published unless you have a Magnificent Reason, but at the very least you will be living grandly.

Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out?

Such things as anguish, woe, affliction, guilt, feelings of awfulness, and utter wretchedness, the bread and butter of Days of Yore and Russians, sadly have very little staying power in these lickety-split Modern Times.

I hate how the people who really get you are the ones you can never hold on to for very long. And the ones who don’t understand you at all stick around.