God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us

That's when I feel most alive, he told me once on an airplane, when I'm helping people.

...Attempts at imitation would put the emphasis where it didn't belong. The goal was to improve the lives of others, not oneself.

among a coward's weapons, cynicism is the nastiest of all

I always want to write something better than the last book.

I am grateful to Stacy Schiff first of all because she can write a sentence-because she offers us her scholarship with wit, clarity, and grace. Once again, she has done what only the best writers can do: she has made the world new, again.

Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.