Most presidents come to Washington bright as freshly minted dimes and leave much diminished.
It is not a camera, or a reporter that makes something real and genuine; more often a camera or a reporter does the opposite.
My boarding school experience was the only thing I had strong enough feelings to write about for hundreds and hundreds of pages. I can still smell the formaldehyde of the fetal pigs in biology.
High school is very intense for everyone. But at a boarding school, because you're there 24 hours a day, everything gets magnified.
I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.
The best part of being a writer for me is immersing myself in a fictional world, which is the opposite of being on social media. At the same time, if no one ever read my work, if I was writing solely for myself, I bet it would be lonely and a lot less fun.
I do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself.
The kids competed for a full 32 minutes. We want the kids to compete on every possession.
Heroism is the antidote to evil.
Notice what happens when you follow your intuitive feelings. The result is usually increased energy and power, and a sense of things flowing.
If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I'm gonna have a heart attack.