People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.

Writing is self-taught. Consulting other people only teaches you to depend on their reactions, which may or may not be legitimate. Quit looking for approval ... Learn to evaluate your own work with a dispassionate eye ... the lessons you acquire will be all the more valuable because you've mastered your craft from within.

Perhaps when we're forced to forfeit what we own, we lose any sentimental associations. Perhaps pawning our valuables frees us in the same way a house fire destroys not only our worldly goods, but our attachment to what's gone.

There's nothing quite as irksome as someone else's mess.

Pretending to be 'normal' is a lot harder than you think.

Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it.

Too much virtue has a corrupting effect.