[I]t may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering.

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.

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

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.

Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.

The new fans of Japan won’t be Orientalists, but they will be anime-savvy.

If I could turn you on, if I could drive you out of your wretched mind, if I could tell you I would let you know.

Your problems aren't too big -- perhaps your worship is too small.

A feeling can't kill you.

If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?

If voting changed anything, it would be illegal.

I'm not into red carpet looks where it's clear the woman wanted to look like a pretty, pretty princess.

There's nothing bigger than being asked to perform at the Super Bowl.

No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.