I was an English major in college, though I ended up getting my degree in "General Stduies" because my grades were too bad to qualify for an English degree.

Sunrises and sunsets are real jerks about putting things in perspective.

You don't have to be a genius when you're surrounded by morons.

It doesn't pay to be good at something unless you are the absolute best at it.

Insanity is just what we call stupidity when it doesn't make sense.

Gratitude can sometimes be as annoying as whininess.

I thought I was going to be a poet when I was in college, but then I found out I was poor so I decided to do something I'd get paid for.

The more you write, the faster you'll write, and the less you'll mind throwing stuff out.

Crime is for poor people. You don't need to rob the bank if you own it.

I can't focus on any one day, because I always have to be ready for the next. It's fun but frenetic - like living in a circus that never stops performing.

A lot of young writers are very precious about their words. Don't be - you've got to be ready to burn stuff. You're not as good as you think you are, at least not yet.

Comparison is the death of joy.

I visit the orchards of God and look at the spheric productAnd look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green.

Middle age is when a guy keeps turning off lights for economical rather than romantic reasons.

I think my exact comment was that if Bush won it would be a good time to leave the United States. I'm not necessarily going to leave the United States.

We need to create a society in which civility rules over cynicism and apathy.

If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit.

The BBC should not have a cheerleader. It should have somebody who runs the organisation in the interests of the public and that should be a chairman.

There are so many difficult things and stories can make them palatable. That's the way I have always felt.

The 1960s: A lot of people remember hating President Lyndon Baines Johnson and loving Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, depending on the point of view. God rest their souls.

You expand your consciousness, your ideas, your perceptions. You break away from self-adopted restrictions. You grow as you learn to step aside from limiting conceptions and dogmas.