Nothing attunes you to the beauty of the quotidian like a man who decides not to kill you after all

A book can’t be a half-fantasy any more than a woman can be half pregnant

The empowered may serve justice, remodel the Earth, transform lush nations into smoking battlefields, and bring down skyscrapers, but power itself is amoral.

Power and moneyLike Pooh Bear and honeyStick fast.

Not a clue – and, no, I don’t touch drugs. The world’s unstable enough without scrambling your brain for kicks.

Nonfiction that smells like fiction is neither.

Books’ll be back, ” Esther-in-Unalaq predicts. “Wait till the power grids start failing in the 2030s and the datavats get erased. It’s not far away. The future looks a lot like the past.

The Future, ” says Ian, in a film-trailer voice. “Coming soon, to a Present near you.

Prayer may be a placebo for the disease of helplessness, but placebos can make you feel better.

Here’s the truth: Who is spared love is spared grief.

And grade every simile and metaphor from one star to five, and remove any threes or below. It hurts when you operate, but afterwards you feel much better.

You need to understand what goal you were created for and you need to understand your destination

I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.

God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.

Practical! On Wednesday afternoons I could be practically anything. What's up?

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea.

A life without a dog is a mistake.

Spooky wild and gusty; swirling dervishes of rattling leaves race by, fleeing the windflung deadwood that cracks and thumps behind.

I would like to feel that I have a range and that it's not just a matter of being a comic actor or a serious actor, because those are really artificial classifications, I think.

When you decide to become an opera singer, it's a commitment that allows nothing else to interfere. Even your family - and I have a young daughter - has to take second place.

I've been poor and neglected, in the middle and cherished, then rich and miserable and back to the middle and now happy. I've lived it all.