old books -- little tombstones of ideas and history

[Karen Lundegaard] was quite frail, debilitated by metastatic breast cancer, which she had long known she had but for which she had been unable to get adequate treatment because she lacked medical insurance. ("If you mention anything about me," she said, "tell people that.")

No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.

That is the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain.

Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterward.

The 21st chapter gives the novel the quality of genuine fiction, an art founded on the principle that human beings change.

----- "A Clockwork Orange Resucked" intro to first full American version 1986