Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

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.

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.

I think ethical ambivalence is a kind of innoculation, a way of excusing yourself in advance for something you actually want to do. No offense.

Why is it that at the very moment I need to appear graceful I stumble and fall like a klutz, as though this scene had never played through my mind differently a million times?

Everyone, except a writer, thinks writing is easy. Writing is tough. Being a disciplined writer is tougher.

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to keep battling. We're a team that has stuck together through the good times and the bad times. Our reward is near.

Never trust a man who combs his hair straight from his left armpit.

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.

True 'magic' is simply the ability to transcend what seems to be and, thus, transform one's experience. Maybe we could all use a little 'Harry Potter' in our lives.

There's kids out there that have so much life to live. That's a beautiful thing.

It is not he who forms idols in gold or marble that makes them gods, but he who kneels before them.

Whatever may happen the sun will rise tomorrow as it rose to-day, beneficent and serene.