Only love could pick a nested pair of steel Bramah locks.

I don't do a lot of foisting, because when it comes to books I don't really like to be foisted upon.

Entertainment is a sacred pursuit when done well. When done well, it raises the quality of human life.

... and because it was a drunken perception, it was perfect, entire, and lasted about half a second.

I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre we call literary fiction get accorded greater esteem and privilege. I also have a problem with how books are marketed, with certain cover designs and typefaces. They're often stamped with an identity that has nothing to do with their effect on the reader.

I don't care what is written," Meyer Landsman says. "I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag.

I can imagine anything except having no imagination.