Never use five words if you can get away with one, eh? I've known dead men talk more than you do.

I have heard the languages of apocalypse, and now I shall embrace the silence.

Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.

When I was a kid and a young man I read everything. When I was about 23, I was incredibly lucky in that I wound up with several book review columns, which meant that I had to read huge amounts of stuff that was outside my experience and outside my comfort zone. I think every young writer should be forced to read the kind of stuff they would not normally read for pleasure.

All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.

He goes his way. We travel a spiral. The quickest way is sometimes the longest.

I was always so relieved that anyone wants to publish anything I've written.