Because every one of us has our box, a dark chamber stowing the thing that lanced our heart. It contains what you do everything for, strive for, wound everything around you.

I hate to think of a day where a compelling book or a compelling authorial voice would be lost simply because that person doesn't have a Web site. But I think that, to use the Internet in a positive way, to turn people on to reading, is something that authors shouldn't really shy away from necessarily.

Sadly, American teenagers are to a weightless vacuum as seat cushions are to polyurethane foam -

What you tend to find in the personal lives of brilliant men is devastation akin to a nuclear bomb going off.

His characters are ravaged, beaten. They walk through infernos and emerged charred doves.

It’s got to be some kind of cult. Anyone offers you Kool-Aid or a hot shower, say no.

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.