I am concentrating docilely on the question why U.S. restrooms always appear to us as infirmaries for public distress, the place to reagain control.

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.

I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?

This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

What Saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it?

Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us.

Our public school system is our country's biggest and most inefficient monopoly, yet it keeps demanding more and more money.

Express your creativity. Delight in the mystery of your inner muse.

We are about to change history, said Saphira. We’re throwing ourselves off a cliff without knowing how deep the water below is. Ah, but what a glorious flight! (Eragon to Saphira)

Like they said about The West Wing, you can't do a show about Washington until you can.

Cloning looks like a degrading of parenthood and a perversion of the right relation between parents and children.

In a normal time, I don't think economic policy makes a large difference one way or another. But in times of crisis it makes all the difference in the world.

All reading for pleasure is entertainment.

If you really want to be successful and you really want to be happy, don't have a job, have a purpose. ...When you've got a purpose, the whole world is your office.