She couldn't avoid being serious about things she cared for, and happiness made her grave at the thought of all the things which might destroy it.

You cats mind if I make it a trio?' he asked me, and it was not a huge surprise that a dude of his appearance was speaking in Jazz Voice.

The various levels of problems and issues are interwoven, so that solving any one of them without simultaneously addressing the others rarely works for long.

[On Werner Erhard, founder of est:] If I wanted a new belief system, I'd choose to believe in God - He's been in business longer than Werner, and He has better music.

You become a serious novelist by living long enough.

For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.

Do we want in this nation to lose the backbone of manufacturing in this country? Do we want to be a nation that doesn't want to manufacture anything?

This is what I love about novels - both reading them and writing them. They jump into the abyss to be with you where you are.

The more one learns, the more he understands his ignorance.

But those who seek only reassurance from life will never be more than tourists—seeing everything and trying to possess what can only be felt. Beauty is the shadow of imperfection.