“The human heart is a dark forest”

“I'm a survivor, " I said. But I didn't think that claim would carry much weight in an obituary.”

“There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer because you have the liber...”

“In the very act of writing I felt pleased with what I did. There was the pleasure of having words come to me, and the pleasure of ordering them, re-ordering them, weighing one against another. Plea...”

“I had never seen such sorrow; it appalled me. And I was even more appalled by her attempts to overcome it, because they so plainly, pathetically failed and in failing opened up a view of the world ...”

“In a world where the most consequential things happen by chance, or from unfathomable causes, you don't look to reason for help. You consort with mysteries... They have been killed in place of you ...”

“Bush spoke of another principle, that a just war must "support a just cause." In the Persian Gulf, he said, "our cause could not be more noble." What nation has ever said its war was not noble?”

“If peace is what every government says it seeks, and peace is the yearning of every heart, why aren't we studying it and teaching it in schools?”

“Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power.”

“He knew what she wanted, and he wanted it, too; he was ready, but not, despite her gorgeousness, with Tiglah. Tiglah was not worth losing his ability to touch a unicorn.”

“Who can find a virtuous woman?For her price is far above rubies.”

“I am fit to capture a unicorn, and I should not be so questioned.”