Most of my teachers probably found I made less trouble if they let me read.

My freshman year of high school I joined the chess and math clubs.

My father was a professor of civil engineering at MIT, and my mother taught high school English.

Between rounds of speed chess I read enough of a programming manual to teach myself to write programs on the school's DEC mainframe in the language Basic.

There are relatively few experiments in atomic physics these days that don't involve the use of a laser.

It was there I met my future wife, Celeste Landry, although our lives took us separate ways for many years and we were not to marry until more than ten years later.

I certainly remember building model rockets. It was fun to watch the rocket blast into the air, suspenseful to wonder if the parachute would open to bring the rocket safely back.

With every passing year, BEC proves that it still has surprises left for us.

After a semester or so, my infatuation with computers burnt out as quickly as it had begun.

I was partly old-fashioned and partly modern.

As it was, I realized choosing the study of Chinese literature as my life's work was probably a mistake.

She was the kind of art that was so valuable it wasn't even for sale, and she smiled when she saw Ash. His pulse jumped.

PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.

Every day of my life I make an effort. Like, everything's an effort - a good effort.

That's the thing about driving: You're alone but you're everywhere. You're standing still but moving really fast. It's just like perspectives constantly changing.

Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored.

The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.

That's the way to come to the Word of God. Read it as though it were His love letter to you.

Frankly, I've never considered my own figure so exceptional; until quite recently, I seldom gave it any thought at all

O happy childhood! blessed youth! But once we know thy potent power; But once we live all careless free; No cross to mar our love-lit bower.

David Burnett was the son of Martha Foley, who edited the Best American Short Stories series. She hired me to work with David and her to read stories for the anthology.