A gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them - jobs, money, pride.

I always found myself in the company of Australians, who were like a reminder that I'd touched bottom.

"Connected" is the triumphal cry these days. Connection has made people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous... I don't doubt that instant communication has been good for business, even for the publishing business, but it has done nothing for literature, and might even have harmed it. In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information (of which there is too much) with ideas (of which there are too few). I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected.

What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you're not in a hurry.

People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.