If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

But I do like churches. The way it feels inside. It feels good when you just sit there, like you're in a forest and everything's really quiet, expect there's still this sound you can't hear.

Laughter does not deny pain. Laughter - like a wail - acknowledges and replies to pain.

He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important.

Did I choose this life of illusion? Don't be mad. My bed was made, I just lied in it.

I'm not dead. But when I am, it's likeI don't know, I guess it's like being inside a book that nobody's reading.

My life is storytelling. I believe in stories, in their incredible power to keep people alive, to keep the living alive, and the dead.