The bottom half of the page had descended into a doodle of a tiny man giving the middle finger to a giant, angry eagle with razor-sharp talons. Beneath it, the caption: To Mock a Killing Bird.

If you write really good material, the rest just falls into place. There's really no trick to it.

I want to be judged harshly because that forces me to really sit down and focus.

Her only fault is that she lacks sense enough to avoid falling in love with such a fool as I!

Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see

I decided that it was more important to laugh than to eat.

It was a sort of peace I have rarely enjoyed since. As if we were the only two souls on earth—all of nature ours to enjoy. I wondered why a creator who had dreamt such beauty would have slandered it with such evil. Such grief. Why He had not been content to leave it unspoilt. I still wonder.