Life is lived forward but is judged in reverse.

So Thomas Pynchon wants a private life and no photographs and nobody to know his home address. I can dig it, I can relate to that (but, like, he should try it when it's compulsory instead of a free-choice option).

Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.

Ignorantly is how we all fall in love; for it is a kind of fall. Closing our eyes, we leap from that cliff in hope of a soft landing. Nor is it always soft; but still, without that leap nobody comes to life.

If you want to be a serious writer, then you have to write what there is to write about. If you're going to pull your punches and second-guess yourself and not do things because you're worried, then don't write. Stay home and do something else.

It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.

The answer to religion is not no religion, but another way of thinking of it. Another way of being in it.