It has often been said that [...] the Japanese [are] geniuses at taking foreign ideas and adding a unique finishing touch.

Before I was reading science fiction, I read Hemingway. Farewell to Arms was my first adult novel that said not everything ends well. It was one of those times where reading has meant a great deal to me, in terms of my development - an insight came from that book.

I can't point to a moment or incident that made me see that this business, this putting down words on paper, was what I would do for the rest of my lucid life. But apparently, that is my calling.

A community is a small group working together. Community scales by adding groups, and building connections between them, not enlarging them.

I'm astonished how little fright I have of my own imagination. It really does baffle me that I don't get more scared because I'm capable of thinking up things that are so awful. On any given day I can imagine the worst.

How could anyone survive even a single day, if he didn't feel as if he was, in some little great way, needed?

To improve as a player you need to not only know how you plan to win, but ... how might your opponent disrupt your plan.