The world's a hard place, Danny. It don't care. It don't hate you and me, but it don't love us, either. Terrible things happen in the world, and they're things no one can explain. Good people die in bad, painful ways and leave the folks that love them all alone. Sometimes it seems like it's only the bad people who stay healthy and prosper. The world don't love you, but your momma does and so do I.

There's a lot of things people think they can't do and then discover they can when they find themselves tight-wired.

This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit.

I believe most people are essentially good. I know that I am. It's you I'm not entirely sure of.

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

Las personas con un alto nivel de tolerancia al aburrimiento tienen tiempo de sobra para pensar.

And if there are no cars or planes, and if no one’s Uncle John is out in the wood lot west of town banging away at a quail or pheasant; if the only sound is the slow beat of your own heart, you can hear another sound, and that is the sound of life winding down to its cyclic close, waiting for the first winter snow to perform last rites.