Everything has to be clean and orderly when I sit down to write. I have candles going, and small objects that remind me of what I am working on, or bring me into the world of the character.

I look at my roommates who are so proud of me that it makes me proud.

That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you - without you asking.

A good mother is irreplaceable.

I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.

But what Mom never told me is that along the way, you find sisters, and they find you. Girls are cool that way.

We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.

Mama always said a good family has one heartbeat. No one knows you like the people you live with, and no one will take up your cause to the outside world quite like your blood relatives.

I even love the smell of books.

I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who want to know the facts, and those who want to make up a nice story to feel better. I wish I was the kind who made up stories.

Bite me, Harry Potter.

I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules.

One of my secret instructions to myself as a poet is "Whatever you do, don't be boring."

Serena Williams [ispires me]. The first time I met her, she was like, "We should hang out and go to dinner," and I'm like, "Uh, yeah! If you insist."

It is the bold man who every time does best, at home or abroad.

It is that cricket field that, in all the sharp and bitter moments of life as they come to me now, gives me a sense of wholesome proportion: 'At least I am not playing cricket!

People, I guess, generally come to see me do stand-up with a working knowledge of my broad sense of humor on The Daily Show ... I don't think anyone would mistake me as an actual anchor.

As with all knowledge, once you knew it, you couldn't imagine how it was that you hadn't known it before.

I have plenty of money to do what I want to do, and I have the relationships.