And what were the rules at St. Cloud's? What were Larch's rules? Which rules did Dr. Larch observe, which ones did he break, or replace--and with what confidence?

What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.

At times, he admitted, he had been very happy in the apple business. He knew what Larch would have told him: that his happiness was not the point, or that it wasn't as important as his usefulness.

Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God

If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is certainly God.

This one is for our crew, but it’s also for all the weird girls and word nerds, for all the in-the-middle wickeds and queers and misfits and hell-raisers.

If we can't begin to agree on fundamentals, such as the elimination of the most abusive forms of child labor, then we really are not ready to march forward into the future.

Sometimes, if I had until the next day to turn the story in, I'd head home, finding that the knot in the narrative came loose with the rhythmic clacking of the subway train.

I thought, briefly, that I would never feel as intensely connected to the world, to another human being, as I did at that moment.

Levin scowled. The humiliation of his rejection stung him to the heart, as though it were a fresh wound he had only just received. But he was at home, and at home the very walls are a support.

I want to be crazy forever, even when I'm 80

Explore this next great frontier where the boundaries between work and higher purpose are merging into one, where doing good really is good for business.

Against a stupidity that is in fashion, no wisdom compensates.

Failing, and learning from it, is necessary. Unil you've done it, you're missing an important piece of your creative arsenal.