“We were put here as witnesses to the miracle of life.”
“My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite.”
“Oh God, without them [libraries], what have we? We have no past and we have no future.”
“Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”
“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.”
“People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it.”
“Cabbage, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man’s head.”
“Loss, n. Privation of that which we had, or had not.”
“Pedigree, n. The known part of the route from an arboreal ancestor with a spring at the further end.”
“Poetry, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.”
“Poker, n. A game said to be played with cards for some purpose to this lexicographer unknown.”
“Plunder, v. To take the property of another without observing the decent and customary reticences of theft.”
“Rank, n. Relative elevation in the scale of human worth.”
“Ransom, n. The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor can belong to the buyer.”
“Rabble, n. In a republic, those who exercise a supreme authority tempered by fraudulent elections.”
“Quotient, n. A number showing how many times a sum of money belonging to one person is contained in the pocket of another.”
“Quorum, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way and their own way of having it.”
“Polygamy, n. A house of atonement, or expiatory chapel, fitted with several stoves.”