How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?

...falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.

come back, come back to me

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.

I've never had a moment's doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.

A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.

True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.

When its gone, you'll know what a gift love was. you'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.

I believe the novella is the perfect form of prose fiction. It is the beautiful daughter of a rambling, bloated ill-shaven giant (but a giant who's a genius on his best days).

I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible.

Observing human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.

The apple was meant to take away the bitter taste, perhaps, ” he said.“I imagine that Mr. Turing wasn’t exactly looking for a taste experience, ” said Corell.“Man always tries to limit his suffering.

We all have our alloted portions of black and white paint

As Kipling said, that’s another story...

Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human.

There is no way to measure it ... because there's no one to measure it.

Valar Morghulis - All men must die.

It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any people are about dress, the more effeminate they are.

I accept my body. I accept how I am and make the best of what I am given. Children orientate towards examples. That's why I talk solely positive about my body in front of my daughter.

God created two acts of folly. First, He created the Universe in a Big Bang. Second, He was negligent enough to leave behind evidence for this act, in the form of microwave radiation.

Greatness stands upon a precipice, and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces.