“Every fundamentalism focuses on end times, and Armageddon is, in a sense, a rhetorical trope, an emphatic and overwhelming conclusion, meant to wrap up and make tidy the mistaken wanderings of hist...”

“Meanwhile, back in the real world, my first instinct is a sort of stupid ducking motion Ive learned from the movies, and I have the sure sense Im going to be shot in the neck, where I feel particul...”

“The canker of self-consciousness has been long in me, so like a lot of writers I not only do a thing, I see myself doing it tooits almost like not being alone. That morning our hero skipped in his ...”

“July 24, 6:03 A.M.The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff...Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing. He killed himself for...”

“A book is a suicide postponed.”

“How much can you really trust the promise of a suicidal father?”