The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia.

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia

Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.

Don't worry about being worried. You're heading out on an adventure and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else.

You do the right thing even if it makes you feel bad. The purpose of life is not to be happy but to be worthy of happiness.

among a coward's weapons, cynicism is the nastiest of all

The combination of domesticity and wildness - that's a deep expression

Things were here before you and will be here after you're gone. The geographic features, especially, give you a sense of your own place in the world and in time

I know that to write you have to have stories you want to tell. You have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard.

Public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.

In order to go on with our lives, we are always capable of making the ominous into the merely strange.

My fingers are wet. I haven’t even got passed your panties yet.

Today will soon enough become tomorrow and spent wisely, will then become a yesterday to remember.

I was almost twelve years old when I decided to kill my parents.

Since ideology is part of the human personality, it deserves a place in the kingdom of eternal truths.

Perfect is unattainable. Better is possible.

The Medicaid system currently steers people toward nursing home care. Far more people can be covered in community-based care programs for significantly less.

Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness.

You're lucky if I watch 10 minutes of wrestling a month. Most of the time, I channel surf, and I lose interest after a few minutes.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise.

In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.