I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me.

Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater.

We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive.

Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open.

They say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey.

Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed.

Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.

In my head there's a broken balcony I fall off of when I speak.

if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.

I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself.

I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because it's true — nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.

In a climate changed world, it is a smart person who thins their trees so that the abnormally high winds can pass through them without damage.

Any acting roles will be few and far between until my kids are older and by then, who knows what I'll want to do?

I'm really not responsible for what mental operation people have when they're reading my books other than the ones which are created by literary effects.

I think the damned souls in hell must spend half their time wondering what it was that they really meant to do.

Dimensionality only exists because the mind can perceive life that way, but that's only one simple method that the mind has for perceiving itself, for perceiving life.

How is error possible in mathematics?

I got mouths to feed til they put flowers on me.

Even if you don't like guns and don't want to own them, you benefit from those who do.

I haven't aged into a character actor. I'm an old leading man.

I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.