I'm Valerie Rye, ' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.

Was an eternity of absolute ease just another name for hell?

Read every day and learn from what you read.

Bloodchild" is my pregnant man story.

Examine what you tolerate. What you put up with you end up with. What you allow continues. Reevaluate the costs and your worth.

A kiss with the right person simply can't be compared to the drudgery of sleeping with the wrong one over and over.

A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.

The secret of directing is working with really good people.

All that I've played, all that I've sung, I couldn't have done any other way.

Getting the support of Syria is the moral equivalent of winning the Klan's endorsement - it might be useful but it doesn't necessarily speak well of you.

I should be getting photographs of me with my arm around these people like restaurant owners do, because eventually I am going to have to prove to my kids that once I was an actor!

Things I Want to Happen After I die: You're allowed to be sad, but you're not allowed to be too sad. If you're always sad when you think about me, then how can you remember me? —Sam McQueen

I ignored my stand-up career for twenty-five years, but now, having finished this memoir, I view this time with surprising warmth. One can have, it turns out, an affection for the war years.

It simply comes down to this, Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying.