Anecdotes don't make good stories. Dig down so far that what finally comes out is not even what you thought it was about.

You cannot let your parents anywhere near your real humiliations.

The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.

Always remember that when a man goes out of the room, he leaves everything in it behind. When a woman goes out she carries everything that happened in the room along with her.

I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel.

The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.

In your life there are a few places, or maybe only the one place, where something happened, and then there are all the other places.

We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do-we do it all the time.

My head was a magpie's nest lined with such bright scraps of information.

Love removes the world for you, and just as surely when it's going well as when it's going badly.

Life would be grand if it weren't for the people.

If your desire is for good, the people will be good.

Rather than seek happiness living my life to please the will of others, I will seek happiness where I know it can be found - living my life to please the will of my heart.

There’s little growth and progression without learning and reflection

Most people with new ideas are ridiculed … until they succeed!

I always wanted to play a mental patient. I was fascinated with playing crazy people in college, and I don't know if I ever quite perfected it.

The scientist believes in proof without certainty.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

Muffled lives explode in understatements.

Art is what we're doing when we do our best work.

It's like you're surfing... The same wave that can be a source of pain can be a beautiful flowing grace and source of power. It's all a matter of how you respond to it.