Fred Ruskin barreled through the rain down Buchanan Street in his battered Pacer, the jar his dead wife had directed him to retrieve from his nephew’s coffin bouncing in the seat beside him.

Finally, mercifully, the spasms subsided, as the old man’s head lolled back, his mouth hanging open, taking in deep, ragged breaths of stale, recirculated air.

If she was going to die, Marla didn't want to know about it.

Sometimes you have to put yourself in other people’s shoes to really understand the hardships of their souls.

I want to feel proud and happy about my selflessness. But what happens when being selfless takes away a big part of your self?

He used to say to his melancholia patients: "You can be cured in fourteen days if you follow this prescription.Try to think every day how you can please someone.

I've learned that every great achievement was once considered impossible

Everything that was not suffered to the end and finally concluded, recurred, and the same sorrows were undergone.

After seeing 'Big,' I wanted an elevator that opened directly into my apartment, just like Tom Hanks did.

I'm not very good at being domesticated. I've tried. The domestic life I find claustrophobic - the rituals and habits and patterns.

She glared at him. "You're doing it again." "What?" "That thing that irritates me." "Smiling?" "Yes. That.

Think for yourself. Know what you're doing. Question authority.