While we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices... Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.

Genre is a useful concept only when used not evaluatively but descriptively.

A moral choice in its basic terms appears to be a choice that favors survival: a choice made in favor of life.

The machine conceals the machinations.

If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.

As a kitten does what all other kittens do, so a child wants to do what other children do, with a wanting that is as powerful as it is mindless. Since we human beings have to learn what we do, we have to start out that way, but human mindfulness begins where that wish to be the same leaves off.

Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.