Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.

Public libraries are the sole community centers left in America. The degree to which a branch of the local library is connected to the larger culture is a reflection of the degree to which the community itself is connected to the larger culture.

The issue of torture, connected to American soldiers, is not somewhere most people want to linger. We may not want to confront this issue so much in the U.S. because of how we want to think about our veterans. There's the sense that we want to think of our veterans as - if they're damaged, damaged by something glamorous, like a firefight.

Luck can't last a lifetime unless you die young.

If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter.

Let the truth take care of itself, I decided. It's done all right on its own so far.

Choose your agent as carefully as you would choose your accountant or lawyer. Or dentist.