A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.

This girl has the spark of life. This is my primary filter for new friends (girl- and otherwise) and the highest compliment I can pay. I've tried many times to figure out exactly what ignites it -- what cocktail of characteristics come together in the cold, dark cosmos to form a star. I know it's mostly in the face -- not just the eyes, but the brow, the cheeks, the mouth, and the micromuscles that connect them all. Kat's micromuscles are very attractive.

Let me give you some advice: make friends with a millionaire when he's a friendless sixth-grader.

You know, I'm really starting to think the whole world is just a patchwork quilt of crazy little cults, all with their own secret spaces, their own records, their own rules.

When every single piece of media you consume is time-shifted, does that mean it's actually you that's time-shifted?

Our books still do not require batteries. But I am no fool. It is a slender advantage.

America pays defense contractors to build aircraft carriers. Google pays brilliant programmers to do whatever the hell they want.