Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.

We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe, until we met you, but never did we dream that thought could arise from the lonely animals who cannot dream each other's dreams

We're all trying to decide whether your scores up there are a miracle or a mistake." "A habit.

Don't lie to me! Don't seem so normal when I know you have cut yourself off from me in your heart! If you can put on our affectionate closeness like a mask, then I'll never be able to take joy in it again.

Andrew said you were the best person he ever knew." "He reached that conclusion before he saw me raise three barbarian children to adulthood. I understand your mother has six." "Right." "And you're the oldest." "Yes." "That's too bad. Parents always make their worst mistakes with the oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.

You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.