All his leisure clothes were absurd - jokes, really - as though leisure itself had to be ridiculed.

Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great.

The most important things in our intimate lives can't be discussed with strangers, except in books.

I think that there are empty ecological niches in the literary landscape crying to be filled and when a book more or less fills a niche it's seized on, even when it's a far from perfect fit...

I think sincerity was my sole aesthetic and realism my experimental technique.

Paris... is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail.

As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together

Tennessee Williams recognized that great theater begins with great talkers, and that great talkers obey two rules: they never sound like anyone else and they never say anything directly.

If I take a less defensive tone, I'd admit that I couldn't write today a very jazzy, contemporary look at America as I did in 1979 in States of Desire.

Ive always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.

I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be

The legal system has been designed to rob the bank accounts of the common people.

You're beautiful to me, Jamie, ” I said softly, at last. “So beautiful, you break my heart.

Managers and leaders cause most of the organizational confusion and frustration by not doing their jobs — their real jobs.

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?

I was prepared to get knocked out myself trying to knock him out, because then I could sleep at night knowing that I've given my best.

Everyone tried with me. And everytime, it felt like the whole point of life was to see if trying was ever enough.

If you have some magical chemistry that actually find the music you make compelling, that is a big bonus.

"Exercise" is such a dirty word in my household that whenever I even think of it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

The relationship between a director and an editor in documentaries is so important.

To be moral is to discover fundamentally ones own being.