Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years.

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.

Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

I think ethical ambivalence is a kind of innoculation, a way of excusing yourself in advance for something you actually want to do. No offense.

In order to grasp the principles of spiritual growth, you need to be filled with understanding and the wisdom of God.

Then I realize that words like "optimism" and "hope" which appear in all those self-help books that claim they'll make us more confident and better to cope with life, are just that: words.

Don't try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough & that makes all the difference.

Astrologers that future fates foreshow.

I am more or less happy when being praised, not very comfortable when being abused, but I have moments of uneasiness when being explained.

Whether history will judge this war to be different or not we cannot say. But this we can say with certainty: A government and a society that silences those who dissent is one that has lost its way.

The Church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you.

A shot is only as every as good as how well it tells the story.

I suppose, mother-in-laws are frightening figures. Especially, more so for mother-in-laws to be.

Romance is a love affair in other than domestic surroundings.