I never have a thematic intention at the outset.

In polite society, we call our obsessions hobbies.

Art is the concrete artifact of faith and expectation, the realization of a world that would otherwise be little more than a veil of pointless consciousness stretched over a gulf of mystery.

He realized now that a lot of the problem had been his own mind, which was usually moving at a speed ten or twenty times that of his classmates. They had thought him strange, weird, or even suicidal, depending on the escapade in question, but maybe it had been a simple case of mental overdrive-if anything about being in constant mental overdrive was simple. Anyway, it was the sort of thing you got under control after a while-you got it under control or you found outlets for it.

I don't want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time.