I felt the weakness of these books, their immateriality, how they had failed to change the world, and I didn't want to sully myself with their weakness anymore.

Reading is entering into the consciousness of another human being.

The love I felt for her on that train ride had a capital and provinces, parishes and a Vatican, an orange planet and many sullen moons -- it was systemic and it was complete.

If you stop thinking, if you stop wondering, you die.

The fading light is us, and we are, for a moment so brief (...) beautiful.

Good fiction makes me turn off all the other parts of my brain, so that I become quiet and submissive, entirely at the mercy of the work at hand.

She took my hand and pulled me after her, her shoulders giving off a sweet peppermint concoction that the bodies of young women sometimes produce to make my life more difficult.

If my mother hadn't tried to sell me chicken Kiev cutlets for $1.40 after I graduated from college, maybe I would've been the lawyer she wanted me to be.

You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.

Forget the fountain of youth, pal of mine. You can live to be a thousand, and it won't matter. Mediocrities like you deserve immortality.

If you read only one memoir by a disaffected, urban, 20-something Jewish girl this year, make it this one. Shukert rocks the lulav.

One of the most effective ways of changing the way people think is to change the way they worship.

You do evil to the man and to God through your miracle prayers all the time.

He pouted—full on pouted. A prince. Pouting. - Kara, re: Braeden

Opinion is often compromised in the face of fear.

E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the United States and can pose serious environmental and health problems here and around the world when not handled properly.

Euler calculated without effort, just as men breathe, as eagles sustain themselves in the air.

All of us should be much more humble and contrite when we point the finger at somebody else, because four more fingers are pointing back at us.

To fall in love with yourself is the first secret of happiness. Then if you're not a good mixer you can always fall back on your own company.

Do diddle di do, Poor Jim Jay Got stuck fast In Yesterday.

Pray often rather than very long at a time. It is hard to be very long in prayer, and not slacken in our affections.