My short stories have always pushed twenty pages. That's no length for a short story to be. You either do them short like Carver or you stop trying.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as I ought not to.

The last couple of roles I missed out on went to Jennifer Hudson, Jessica Biel and Olivia Wilde.

Of the many guests we welcomed to the Mickey Mouse Club, my absolute favorites were the Lennon Sisters.

Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.

No one can be saved - in virtue of what he can do. Everyone can be saved - in virtue of what God can do.

When I go down into the ground at last, as God is my judge, I pray my best-beloved may have better to say of me than, "He didn't hit me."

I never imagined, never imagined I would have the opportunity to be governor of the state that I love.

When I was real young I wanted to play baseball. I really loved playing center field, but that was never anything I was really ever that good at. I played up until I was in ninth grade.

Dogs will eat till they die. Cats will leave food in the dish, incomprehensible to a dog.