The person you are (in total, at that moment in time) is what creates the story you’re writing. It’s infused in every piece of punctuation, in the plot, in the most minor character who crosses...

Men always want to die for something. For someone. I can see the appeal. You do it once and it’s done. No more worrying, not knowing, about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I know you...

Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.

The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were set. There each was weighed, tested, for...

Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.

Taken together the Internet reads like the grandest character-driven novel humanity has ever known. Not much plot though.

The success of any society must be judged by the life of its worst off. No other calculation will do.

Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians,...

Don’t focus on the mishaps; consider the pleasures instead.

If you haven’t caused a scene in a psych unit, it’s just because you haven’t been inside long enough.

We like monsters,” he said.

I’m always looking for the monster. Not even just in horror. I want them in everything. Just give me the monsters. Logical conclusions don’t satisfy. Monsters satisfy, absolutely.