It was solitude, but it was solitude that wasn't lonely. Solitude that could sort things out. And he hadn't had that in ages.

There's hope at the bottom of the biggest waterfall." ~pg 426

Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.

Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge.

Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.

To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.

A book… it’s a world all on its own too. A world made of words, where you live for a while.

I was a hugely unchaperoned reader, and I would wander into my local public library and there sat the world, waiting for me to look at it, to find out about it, to discover who I might be inside it.

We are the choices we make.

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.

... a good idea always attracts other good ideas.

Writing is a mysterious activity.

Sometimes it's difficult to tell what side of the moral compass we are all on. There are so many things to factor in.

The age in which we live can only be characterized as one of barbarism. Our civilization is in the process not only of being militarized, but also being brutalized.

I have met guys who work the overnight shift at 7-11, selling Slurpees and Camels to insomniacs who have more introspection than a lot of people in the mainstream media.

From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else.

I was very spiritual as a kid. I think I felt and thought about things a lot more deeply than most of the other kids my age. I wanted to help people.

I'm wide open and will entertain anything anybody has to say, but if it's MTV and radio, well, they're great things, but can't be the only thing. I don't know that it would work even for the Beatles.

There are no good or bad habits. All habits are, by definition, bad.

What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on!

I think in the real world that's probably correct. That would give federal matching funds. It would mean no more ballot access woes.