There were days when no kid came out of his house without looking around. The week after Halloween had a quality both hungover and ominous, the light pitched, the sky smashed against the rooftops.

I try not to become too regular an addict of any one subculture.

I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram.

I've never related to the work geek at all-it sounds much more horrible than nerd. Like a freak biting a chicken's head off in a sideshow.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

Someday I would change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

I work on a laptop specifically so I can work in cafes and pretend I'm part of the human world.

What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?

It was only as I wrote about fear that I began to find paths of access to feelings that were intolerable to me then.

I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.

I can't bear the silent ringing in my skull.

To fly deep into the sky, you have to expand your wings by learning new things.

No man can escape the shadow of his own character." Let us hope we are casting the right kind of shadow!

Thank you, " I said bravely, dropping the syllables cleanly, like marbles, and secretly full of the most pathetic pride imaginable. I had spoken to strangers.

To wheedle and coax is safer than to command.

When people lack jobs, opportunity, and ownership of property they have little or no stake in their communities.

There is no lapse in His character or inconsistency in His nature. Our God is everything he says He is… for now and all eternity.

It was when I entered the military preparatory school and put on its uniform, that a feeling of strength came to me, as if I had become master of my own destiny.

You have to build systems to protect against your lesser self.

Now remember, they say if two people go together to visit the Taj Mahal, that means they will always be together. Are you ready for that? Guess I'm stuck with you then.

To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.