At the end of the day, perhaps the best argument against capital punishment may be that it is an issue beyond the limited capacity of government to get things right.

The one thing I would like more credit for is being part of a movement which involves recognising the importance of plot and asserting that books of literary worth could be written that had plots.

The issue is not whether there are horrible cases where the penalty seems "right". The real question is whether we will ever design a capital system that reaches only the "right" cases, without dragging in the wrong cases, cases of innocence or cases where death is not proportionate punishment. Slowly, even reluctantly, I have realized the answer to that question is no- we will never get it right.

Life is simply experience; for reasons not readily discerned, we attempt to go on.

Who are we but the stories we tell about ourselves, particularly if we accept them?

The prosecutor, who is supposed to carry the burden of proof, really is an author.

I count myself as one of millions of Americans whose life simply would not be the same without the libraries that supported my learning.