--nor had I understood til then how the shameless vanity of utter fools can so strongly determine the fate of others

The danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop.

When he is sick, every man wants his mother.

For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit.

I'm an Obama supporter. And if you're an Obama supporter that means you had a hard time during the Bush years.

When I have a first draft, I have a floor under my feet that I can walk on. Then, especially with the help of the computer, rewriting is so easy to do with the computer, much easier than it used to be with the typewriter. So the books go through numerous drafts.

I wouldn't mind writing a long book which is going to occupy me for the rest of my life.