Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years.

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

I think ethical ambivalence is a kind of innoculation, a way of excusing yourself in advance for something you actually want to do. No offense.

Give yourself permission 2 evolve. Become a philosopher

Diligence, hard work, perseverance, excellence are the values that cause things to happen.

Self-pity NEVER leads to happiness. Avoid it like it's a zombie plague.

His speech was a fine sample on the whole Of rhetoric which the learn'd call "rigmarole."

The framers, in their wisdom, designed the [political] system so that power's pretty disbursed.

The goal of a passionate artist is to try and make a masterpiece each and every time, yet be wise enough to know you will fall short.

Take your hurt feelings and channel them into political activism.

I'm still doing me. I try to come up with different concept for my shows, you gotta keep the people interested, but I'm still me.

I like to begin every screenplay with a burst of delusional self-confidence. It tends to fade pretty quickly, but for me, at least, there doesn't seem to be any other way to start writing a script.

Little Things isn't about anyone in particular, it's about all girls. You're all beautiful and you need to hear it more often