The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the ‘Oh how banal.’

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.

I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?

This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief- what is faith- if you don't continue in it after failure.

Let your life speak volumes holding your words accountable, lest you become just a talking head.

onceI heard her huskylaughter pour out likerain after a drought

I am alive, I live, I breathe, I put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight.

Life seems terrible and disappointing, so you need to find something you need to make you stick around. Music that makes me happiest is the saddest music, with the most emotional feel.

People who declare that they belong to no party certainly do not belong to ours.

She dumped me for the quarterback after she'd played my body like a banjo. So Sad." "I bet" "I'm serious. I was heartbroken." "For how long?" "A whole week." An eternity in the life of a teenage boy.

And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.

Teaching vocabulary lists is inefficient - the time is better spent reading alone.