I don't know what it is about food your mother makes for you, especially when it's something that anyone can make - pancakes, meat loaf, tuna salad - but it carries a certain taste of memory.

You're not going to get to college - you're not even going to be qualified, even to go to a community college, if you don't address the basic problem of literacy in America. And there's no reason - no reason - for us to have that problem.

You've lived through a lot of wars, I said. "Yes." Do they ever make more sense? "No.

There are many things in my life that I wish I could take back. Many moments I would recast.

...the human spirit knows, deep down that all lives intersect.

Don't let go too soon, but don't hold on too long.

Nobody's favorite movie is some dark, dysfunctional slasher story. Everybody's favorite song is a sentimental song. So why all of a sudden is it bad to be sentimental in books?