The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.

I guess my life hasn’t always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much about certain things, or else they’ll break my heart.

Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude.

It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.

Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity, too. They're pure hyena.

Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people.

The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage.

The Mekons were kind of like the background music of my life.

Depression presents itself as a realism regarding the rottenness of the world in general and the rottenness of your life in particular.

Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.

Fiction is a particularly effective way for strangers to connect across time and distance

The more you look into and understand yourself, the less judgmental you become towards others.

Through our expectations, we violently expand and try to fill the world with our proofs of worth.

I found I could only glance at him for tiny moments and then I had to look away. He was perfect enough to hurt my feelings for a long time, and I wanted to let him.

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

It's impossible having five, six, seven people in a room being creative together and not fight, because you want to fight. It's the only way creativity works, if you all put your ideas in.

Ive been blessed to be in a position to share (my experiences).

Life is full of what-ifs. You can’t let it hold you back. If you do, you’re not really living at all… just kind of going through the motions with no meaning

You have to be willing to sacrifice as much to prevent war, as soldiers are willing to sacrifice to wage war.

Providence The will of God acting together with human will. But he respects our will absolutely. He does not force. Love never forces. It only invites. ... There is a war between good and

If every piece is perfect the room becomes a museum and lifeless.