I felt myself getting whiter... What does it mean to become white? How does it feel to see Death in the flesh, come to gather you in?

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

Time spent effectively can be compensated

The enemy stays in the hearts of friends. Watch what your friends know about you and watch what you tell your friends, remember, egoism breeds jealousy and ends a relationship in discord.

Sometimes it seemed difficult for the adults in Sophie's life to tell between 'carried away' and 'absolutely correct but unbelieved.

Personally, I think tying garbage bags around your head and hands is overkill.

Elinor Lipman tweets like a nightingale with an eagle eye.

The worst crimes are not committed by evil degenerates, but by decent and intelligent people taking 'pragmatic' decisions.

I've always loved J.R.R. Tolkein and recently, Christine Feehan and J.K.Rowling. There are many as I'm an avid reader, but those three come to the fore.

Wherever you may seek solitude, men will ferret you out and compel you to belong to their desperate company of oddfellows.

The size of your promise defines the size of your life.

You can run from some problems, but then you get caught up in others.