Alcohol causes a lot of problems, and then to solve these problems, you drink more.

Reading is entering into the consciousness of another human being.

The love I felt for her on that train ride had a capital and provinces, parishes and a Vatican, an orange planet and many sullen moons -- it was systemic and it was complete.

If you stop thinking, if you stop wondering, you die.

The fading light is us, and we are, for a moment so brief (...) beautiful.

Good fiction makes me turn off all the other parts of my brain, so that I become quiet and submissive, entirely at the mercy of the work at hand.

She took my hand and pulled me after her, her shoulders giving off a sweet peppermint concoction that the bodies of young women sometimes produce to make my life more difficult.

If my mother hadn't tried to sell me chicken Kiev cutlets for $1.40 after I graduated from college, maybe I would've been the lawyer she wanted me to be.

You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.

Forget the fountain of youth, pal of mine. You can live to be a thousand, and it won't matter. Mediocrities like you deserve immortality.

If you read only one memoir by a disaffected, urban, 20-something Jewish girl this year, make it this one. Shukert rocks the lulav.

Feel the joy of life when you cry, when you smile, love or feel shy.

Knowledge is the life of the mind

Everything’s possible and nothing’s not.

I've been getting into drinking smoothies in the morning - I like those a lot.

I am a reflection of my mother’s secret poetry as well as of her hidden angers

Say good-bye to the Affordable Care Act. That means 20 million people who lose their health insurance, just like that.

The most fundamental constraint is limited time

The sum of all your thoughts comprises your overall attitude.

Plan your work and work your plan.

Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.