The only process you've mastered is the process of elimination, and the only reason you've mastered that is because you can do it in the toilet.

People love to hear the brag of the local boy, because they want him to be great, but the foreigner must deny that he has any outstanding virtue - this is what will endear him to the locals.

Oh no, real life is escape. The great terrors, the horrors--we hope--of your life come from reading fiction.

it was all your genes that made us geniuses, mom. said peter. we sure didn't get any from dad. i heard that. father said, not looking up from the news that was being displayed on the table while he ate it would've been wasted if you hadn't

If only we were wiser or better people, perhaps the gods would explain to us the mad, unbearable things they do.

But in the meantime I became accustomed to the writing life and it would be hard to change now - partly because of the salary cut if I went to my other love, teaching; and partly because I still have stories to tell, even though it isn't all that fun doing the work anymore.

Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon.