[I]f the writer does his job right, what he basically does is remind the reader of how smart the reader is.

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.

Desiree. It's like falling in love every night and having your heart broken every morning... Having more memory is just a way of distorting a greater amount of the past.

But clearly life took people and shook them around until finally they were unrecognizable even to those who had once known them well. Still, there was power in once having known someone.

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

When it ceases to be fun, I'll stop and just stay in my restaurants.

I think that all the spiritual training is just to be able to allow you to experience this from a slightly different perspective - one that's a little more stabilized.

Everyone has obstacles to overcome, but those with great faith can conquer whatever stands in the way.

We often suffer more from our fears, than from the dangers of our situation.

Love is the supreme value around which all moral values can be integrated into one ethical system valid for the whole of humanity.

Most people are poor not because they are not smart - most people are poor or struggle financially because they're fearful of losing.

The busy bee has no time for sorrow.