Many of us write because we are readers and have grown up in a long tradition, and we want to be able to add to that extraordinary flow of interpretations of the world.

When it comes time to do your own life, you either perpetuate your childhood or you stand on it and finally kick it out from under.

The pity of living only once is that there is no way, ever, to be sure which sorrows are inevitable.

All schoolchildren are hostages to red tape and fiscal insufficiency.

[On book promotion:] The reward for writing well appears to be not to be able to do it for a long time.

They are the kind of people who are embarrassed by money, a dead middle-class giveaway. Poor people are not embarrassed by money and are contemptuous of those who are.

When it comes time to do your own life you either perpetuate your childhood or you stand on it and finally kick it out from under.

Let me be clear. I applaud self love. I appreciate self value. But if you're not capable of loving another person just as much... you will never experience true love.

The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it withing his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.

Freedom is not a privilege for some but a right for ALL

When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.

I'd choose truth over cake but I'd try to find a way to get both to be honest.

The beautiful thing about music is that even so-called negative emotions like anger, sadness, frustration, when they come through the filter of music, they all become beautiful.

I'm on the air five hours, and I blurt out anything in my head. Dangerous? Maybe.

Angels may be very excellent sort of folk in their way, but we, poor mortals, in our present state, would probably find them precious slow company.

If people stop having secrets they stop having power.

Too caustic? To hell with the costs, we'll make the picture anyway.