"1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them."
"Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer."
"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."
"If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind."
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind."
"Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber."