I only hope to do well enough before I die to have a house as big as my rich Uncle Ed and Aunt Carole.

I realized early that unless you're willing to kill the innocent, you can't win.

There's no word in the language I revere more than 'teacher.' My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher.

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.

Paranoia has a sharper taste if the danger is real.

The mind is an intricate mechanism that can be run on the fuels of both victory and defeatism.

My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.