Even today, I hunt for the fabulous books that will change me utterly. I find myself happiest in the middle of a book which I forget that I am reading, but am instead immersed in a made-up life lived...
But no one walks out of his family without reprisals: a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters.
Books are living things and their task lies in their vows of silence. You touch them as they quiver with a divine pleasure. You read them and they fall asleep to happy dreams for the next 10 years. If...
When the words pour out of you just right, you understand that these sentences are all part of a river flowing out of your own distant, hidden ranges, and all words become the dissolving snow that fee...
I realize words are never enough; they stutter and cleave to the roof of my mouth.
. . . I have come to revere words like democracy and freedom, the right to vote, the incomprehensibly beautiful origins of my country, and the grandeur of the extraordinary vision of the founding fath...
I dislike poor teachers. They are criminals to me. I’ve seen so much cruelty toward children. I’ve seen so many children not given the opportunity to live up to their potential as human beings.
Do you think that Hemingway knew he was a writer at twenty years old? No, he did not. Or Fitzgerald, or Wolfe. This is a difficult concept to grasp. Hemingway didn't know he was Ernest Hemingway when...