He knows, as all the cleverest ones do, that no human being is so interesting that he can't make himself more interesting still by acting retarded at…

- Walter Kirn

It's no accident that most self-help groups use 'anonymous' in their names; to Americans, the first step toward redemption is a ritual wiping out of …

- Walter Kirn

Spirit was a by-product of activity, like the reflection from a spinning fan blade, and our souls in the end did not reside within us but flowed outw…

- Walter Kirn

At the beginning of a novel, a writer needs confidence, but after that what's required is persistence. These traits sound similar. They aren't. Confi…

- Walter Kirn

I still believe in love. I always will. It's my blessing and my burden.

- Walter Kirn

Sometimes, when a person is truly lost in this world, suffocating inside her private bubble where all she can hear is her own droning heartbeat, a to…

- Walter Kirn

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.

- Walter Kirn

Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.

- Walter Kirn

A writer turns his life into material, and if you’re in his life, he uses yours, too.

- Walter Kirn