Dogs really are perfect soldiers. They are brave and smart; they can smell through walls, see in the dark, and eat Army rations without complaint.

Orchid hunting is a mortal occupation.

I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done.

Living in a rural setting exposes you to so many marvelous things - the natural world and the particular texture of small-town life, and the exhilarating experience of open space.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.

Libraries are what is best about us as a society: open, exciting, rich, informative, free, inclusive, engaging.

One of the very best reasons for having children is to be reminded of the incomparable joys of a snow day.

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.

An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

Wickedness is weakness.

We need a president who realizes that there's no government business in show business.

Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that we have resisted it in the past.

I think, to me, reality is better than being fake.

What I like about their films is that you actually feel the momentum of whatever they're shooting. So, if someone's falling out a window, it gives the opportunity to show what that might feel like.

Hope grows in us, despite our moments of darkness, regardless of our regular bouts of depression.

Musically, I just think in terms of what's next. There's a lot of things I've always dreamed of doing, and I hope I get to them before I get too deaf.

A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.

I don't tan in New York City. I don't want to waste it on that. I'll do my own fake tan, actually. It's awesome.

Everything is made of atoms.