In books, as in life, there are no second chances. On second thought: its the next work, still to be written, that offers the second chance.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.

After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.

If we had to say what writing is, we would have to define it essentially as an act of courage.

Is there a word more passionate than passion? Obsession, total immersion, the feeling that everything else doesn't matter.

To imagine the unimaginable is the highest use of the imagination

In saying what is obvious, never choose cunning. Yelling works better.

The power of language, it seems to me, is the only kind of power a writer is entitled to.

Traveling is seeing; it is the implicit that we travel by.

Sometimes I think heaven must be one continuous unexhausted reading.

Many become brave when brought to bay.

For seldom shall she hear a tale So sad so tender yet so true.

Quite often, when I describe to people what I want, I'll say "overwhelming" - I want it to feel like it's phy

Economists actually disagree about whether there are significant economic returns from attending an elite college versus a less-selective one.

We must put an end to both economic freeloading and economic exploitation in America. There must be no place for parasites who draw their sustenance from society without giving anything in return.

Never have nights been more beautiful than these nights of anxiety. In the sky have been shining in trinity the moon, Venus and Mars. Nature has been more splendid than man.

There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas.

Living in Pakistan, you didn't have a sense of how huge and varied America was, geographically.

Some people worry. Others prepare.