I love the earth too much to contemplate a life apart from it, although I believe in that life.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

One of the things I learned about writing a memoir is you can’t drag the reader through everything. Every human life is worth 20 memoirs.

I see a lot of marriages crash and burn around me and my wife. I've always been curious about how hard it is to love well and be loved.

Fear is a ghost; embrace your fear, and all you’ll see in your arms is yourself.

As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes.

I've learned over the years that the writing is smarter and far larger than the writer and his or her own desires for it.

I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to war after The Iliad.

Somewhere, sometime I'd stopped expecting my father to father.

I read poetry every day. I love the boiled down essence of poetry. I look for poetry in prose. In a way that evocative.

What is art if not a concentrated and impassioned effort to make something with the little we have, the little we see?

Beyond your wildest imagination, there is something worth working for.

The horrible monsters in this world are the ones that wear human face

It's one of the most important things in life to provide someone with a job.

Only great and general battles can produce great results

To be at other people's orders brings out all the bad in me.

The injustice done to an individual is sometimes of service to the public.

I have my dream job! As a young person training as an actor, walking on the WB studio lot is a dream in itself.

A quick smile is more seductive than a slinky dress.

Criticism is easier to take when you realize that the only people who aren’t criticized are those who don’t take risks.

Apartheid isn't that cut-and-dry. All men are not created equal.