The seeds of destruction lie in the definition of "chosen-ness" and can easily blossom into bigotry. It's not inevitable but it needs constant care to avoid.

No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

Most of the really good literature I've read in my life was political, meaning it was important - about something going on in the history of the world - or contemporary.

You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.

It was becoming a habit-this concentration on things behind him. Almost as though there were no future to be had. *Milkman*

I think being an editor really helped me take other people's notes on my writing. I'd get a note like 'It's too wet' or 'The first couple chapters are good, but then the rest of the pages were so wet that they were completely illegible' or 'Did you dip this in Sprite? This smells like Sprite. Why would you dip your novel in Sprite?' And instead of pushing back, I'd listen. That's an incredibly important skill for a young writer to have.