“If people who rely on natural spring of talent suddenly find they're exhausted their only source, they're in trouble.”

“After you pass a certain age, things you were able to do easily aren’t so easy anymore — just as a fastball pitcher’s speed starts to slip away with time. Of course, it’s possible for people as they mature to make up for a decline in natural talent. Like when a fastball pitcher transforms himself into a cleverer pitcher who relies on changeups. But there is a limit. And there definitely is a sense of loss.”

“I never trust people with no appetite. It's like they're always holding something back on you.”

“Most people, he muses, they're trying to escape from boredom, but I'm trying to get into the thick of boredom.”

“If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn't afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they're seventeen.”

“Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.”

“Everyone may be ordinary, but they're not normal.”