All of a sudden it felt like people were peering over my shoulder, wondering what I would write next. I was blocked for four years.

Your mother is not crazy. Neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother. He is merely miscast in a play. He would have made the perfect knight in a different century, or a very good pagan prince in a time of heroes. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything and finding nothing he wants to do.

I guess I just couldn't see standing there -- alive, talking, thinking, breathing, being -- one second, and dead the next. It really bothered me. Death by violence isn't the same as dying any other way, accident or disease or old age. It just ain't the same.

I gotta cut smoking or I'll never make track next year

All my life I wanted somebody who knew more than I did to tell me the truth.

I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.

Get smart and nothing can touch you.