Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader.

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.

Jefferson determined the lodestar that lay hidden in the motivations of others

God himself and Jesus relied upon light to function on the earth

I begin to wonder if David was like me. Seeing monsters everywhere and realizing there aren't enough slingshots in the world to get rid of them.

Ron Paul is not going to be president, so we don't have to worry about who's going to be in his cabinet.

The hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown.

Later our dreams begin catching fire around the edges, they burn like paper, we wake with our hands full of ash.

We need to consolidate our enlargement agenda but be cautious with new commitments.

If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.

One day I realized that it didn't matter whether people loved me or not.

you must learn to live as I do - in the face of constant criticism, opposition and censure. That, sir, is the English way.