It is not, as somebody once wrote, the smell of corn bread that calls us back from death; it is the lights and signs of love and friendship.

A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey's gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heaving copious sighs like the autumn wind.

It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.

That's the way I remember them, heading for an exit.

Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house.

Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread out around us like a bewildering and stupendous dream.

Art is the triumph over chaos.

Homesickness is nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time.

I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be.

Then it is dark; it is a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains.

I am looking for the people who have always been there, and belong to the places they live. The others I do not wish to see.

In this world one must have a name; it prevents confusion, even when it does not establish identity. Some, though, are known by numbers, which also seem inadequate distinctions.

In a moment we lost our minds hereand lay our spirits down.Today we lived a thousand years,all we have is now.

When you're telling a story, I think you should tell it to its fullest, with reckless abandon, and absolutely let it be what it is.

You can't be afraid to deal with your demons. You've got to go there to be able to write.

He protected his feelings in walls he imagined, but castles crumble exposing the frightened child.

I don't care where Obama goes. He can go wherever he wants.

All I know is, if we don't eat soon I'm going to chew off a limb. And I can't guarentee it'll be mine.

And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you I will show you fear in a handful of dust

I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.