Public libraries are the sole community centers left in America. The degree to which a branch of the local library is connected to the larger culture is a reflection of the degree to which the...

He said, “Yeah, well, artists are a lot like gangsters. They both know that the official version, the one everyone else believes, is a lie.

If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with your pals or in any other line of work.

We are the planet, fully as much as water, earth, fire and air are the planet, and if the planet survives, it will only be through heroism. Not occasional heroism, a remarkable instance of it...

One hates a person for the same reason one loves him 

It’s hard to know more about a person’s life than what that person wants you to know.

Our sins describe us, and our prohibitions describe our sins.

Boys like it when you talk to them as if they were grown men—at least he always did when he was a kid—because they pretend that’s what they are anyhow, grown-up men, and they do...

What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don’t believe anything is true simply because you...

When you are a long way from where you think you belong, you will attach yourself to people you would otherwise ignore or even dislike.