“You learned to accept, or you ended up in a small room writing letters home with Crayolas.”

“He said that if culture is a house, then language was the key to the front door; to all the rooms inside. Without it, he said, you ended up wayward, without a proper home or a legitimate identity.”

“Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.”

“You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.”

“If you must reread old love letters, better pick a room without mirrors.”

“Who here wants to be a writer?' I asked. Everyone in the room raised his hand. 'Why the hell aren't you home writing?' I said, and left the stage.”

“I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing this letter, the whole truth of why it happened. And the truth is that I goddamn loved you so much.”

“…good teachers are priceless. They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don't know it.”

“Have you ever written a letter you knew you could never mail but you needed to write it anyway?”

“Crowded fifty to a room, There's too many rats in this cage of the world, And the women know their place, They sit home and write letters, And when they visit once a year, Well they both just sit there and stare, Gotta keep bars in between us, See how we are”