Any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

—George Orwell

The divine lives within the husk of mortal things.

—Simon Schama

You keep waiting for that person for whom you voted to emerge, but then you start to realize that he's not, that he's just not.

He's done the math, and he's figured out the safest path.

It's embarrassing to want so much, and to expect so much from music, except sometimes it happens.

—Bruce Springsteen

I think that we can all agree that California is the best state in America. If California and the United States were to break up, the United States would cry itself to sleep, wondering where it all went wrong, while California would immediately be out being courted by one of your few remaining desirable nations.

I spent one of the best years of my life living in Madison.

I’m in Canada right now (British Columbia to be more specific, [Whistler Village to be even more specific {the Mountainside Lodge to be most specific of all}]), after having spent 5 ½ days trying to get some writing done. How’d it go? Like it usually goes: not well.

So I'm crossing the Canadian border just north of Blaine, Washington, in my silvery and lovely Civic. Nearly every time I cross over, I get hassled.