If you're born lucky, you don't have to be good.

No agent wants to see a book until he or she has decided whether to pursue the relationship

Don't tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don't believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn't possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah.

Nothing kinder than strangers. Nothing stranger than kindness.

There is no frigate like a book and no harbor like a library, where those who love books but can't afford their own complete collections, or those who need a computer, or kids who need a safe place to read after school, or moms with toddlers who want their babies to learn to read, can all come together and share in a great community resource.

The possibility of bringing white-collar criminals to justice is ever receding over the horizon.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.