Want to know the best thing about teaching? Seeing that moment when a kid discovers his or her gift. There's no feeling on earth like it.

And I guess you judge how well you're doing by how well you sleep at night... and what your dreams are like.

There are a great many ways to commit suicide you know.

I'd like to learn French well enough to write in that language.

Lover," she whispers, and closes her eyes. It falls upon her. Love is like dying.

Bad writing is more than a matter of (expletive deleted) syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.

And I believe happiness is the exact opposite of sadness, bitterness, and hatred: happiness should remain unexamined as long as possible.