“The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.”

“Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake. ”

“It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than the time and place they were living through.”

“The difference between Socrates and Jesus is that no one had ever been put to death in Socrates' name. And that is because Socrates' ideas were never made law. Law, in whatever name, protects privilege.”

“Grandmamma had been the last connection to our past. I had understood her as some referent moral authority to whom we paid no heed, but by whose judgments we measured our waywardness.”

“We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being. ”

“And so the ordinary unendurable torments we all experienced were indeed exceptional in the way they were absorbed in each heart.”