“French is the language that turns dirt into romance.”

“Chris: How do you know if a Frenchman has been in your backyard?Teddy: Hey, I'm French, okay?Chris: Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant.[Chris and Gordie laugh]Teddy: Didn't I just say I was French?”

“I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.”

“They found him guilty, and brother, if Maine had the death penalty, he would have done the airdance before that spring's crocuses poked their heads out of the dirt.”

“The rest of 2012's big winners are romances, all but one (The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks) of the sexed-up genre now known as "mommy-porn.”

“And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God's language - it's better, it's finer, it's language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.”

“Here I am, ninety years old and ready for the cooling board, using a brand new Macintosh computer, and there you sit, twenty-two and gorgeous, fresh as a new peach, yet scrawling on a yellow legal pad like an old maid in a Victorian romance.”