But also . . . I have plenty of people around me to talk to, and no one to be honest with.

Because he says he can't stand you and you act like you can't stand him, and whenever a man and a woman behave like that toward each other, it usually means something's going on.

Imagine having a mother who worries that you read too much. The question is, what is it that's supposed to happen to people who read too much? How can you tell when someone's crossed the line.

School is one long illness with symptoms that switch every five minutes so you think it's getting better or worse. But really it's the same thing for years and years.

[Public] libraries should be open to all—except the c

Because she did love him, and not from afar, not with the moony dreaminess she’d used as a crutch for so many years, but with a deep, aching tenderness she felt might just kill her.

What matters isn't what you are, it's who you are, right now, in this moment. What matters are the choices we make. That's what defines us. Nothing else.

Miserere is about redemption, and the triumph of our best impulses over our worst. It's also about swords, monsters, chases, ghosts, magic, [and] court intrigues. It's also really, really good.

Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do; but nearly every one who tries his power touches the walls of his being.

I try not to take myself too seriously.

Chicago’s neighborhoods have always been the city’s greatest strength.

I do not think that any civilization can be called complete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made a conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living.

How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself. So always think positively.

I was much more upset by the situation with Jacob than by the possibility of being eaten by a bear.