Without coffee, nothing gets written. Period.

It was always the conscientious, hard-working ones, Shipley thought, who were the most vulnerable. The people who cared. Those who didn’t care, who just wanted to get through the job or the day or the hour and to hell with everyone who didn’t like it – those people were protected from shame by their own indifference.

Hausdorff dimension.

No social movement has ever progressed without emphasizing division, and doing that means stirring up hate.

The art of fiction, like the art of stage magicians, is one of directing the audience’s attention to what you want them to see.

It was funny in a way, but only in the unhumorous way anything recent was funny. In another 80 years, maybe she would find it hilarious.

There have always been haters, Stewart. Hate Jews, hate Blacks, hate immigrants, hate Yagaiists who have more initiative and dignity than you do. I’m just the latest object of hatred. It’s not new, it’s not remarkable. It doesn’t mean any basic kind of schism between the Sleepless and Sleepers.

Throw enough scientific gibberish at non-scientists and they always faltered.

The CEO of Monsanto had been disemboweled alive.

Things got said, the kinds of embarrassing things that don’t go away. Tempers ran high. My paternal grandfather’s teak desk required a new panel, which never quite matched the others. Intellectual debate can be very hard on furniture.