When I was a kid, Halloween was strictly a starchy-vegetable-only holiday, with pumpkins and Indian corn on the front stoop; there was nothing electric, nothing inflatable, nothing with latex membranes or strobes.

One of my favorite activities as a teen-ager was to watch television over the phone with my best friend.

Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but there are a few things I wish I didn't know.

I think on a day-to-day basis, what attracts us in coexisting with another living, evolving thing, is that you have a relationship that's different than with a piece of furniture. We experience the cycle of life through these other beings.

'Brave' is one of those words that has been bleached of most of its meaning these days, thanks to far too many appearances in the glaring light of ad slogans and corporate public relations. I never thought about anything as brave anymore; it just seemed like a flabby, glib cliche.

I would argue that it might be easier to endure loneliness than to endure the idea that you might disappear.

Animals can seem more pure. Without complication, I mean, animals are selfless. What animals do for us, they do out of instinct.