Few things linger longer or become more indwelling than that feeling of both completion and emptiness when a great book ends. That the book accompanies the reader forever from that day forward is part of literature's profligate generosity.

You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.

The water was pure and cold and came out of the Apennines tasting like snow melted in the hands of a pretty girl.

I had come to a place where I was meant to be. I don't mean anything so prosaic as a sense of coming home. This was different, very different. It was like arriving at a place much safer than home.

The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life.

Paranoia has a sharper taste if the danger is real.

She had awakened something in him that had slumbered far too long. Not only did he feel passion, he felt the return of hope.