My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.

I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.

I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel.

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain't one.

We live in a society of {more, faster, and extra.} So we feel the need to respond {more, faster, and extra.} Such a useless exercise. So much joy can be found in slowing down.

It is better to make an irrational noise in a bush than in a desert.

You have left me so long to struggle against death, alone, that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!

I was initiated as a Buddhist monk at the age of 19, but I think that initiation is simply a starting point.

Children, to be illustrious is sad.

Essien Udom is a Nigerian. At present he's a professor at Ibadan University.

I still believe in the nonviolent Jesus and the basic human goodness present in all of us.

I'd move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and Australia were swallowed up by a tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack.

The marathon is my only girlfriend. I give her everything I have.

...thinking as he had thought before and would think again and as every other man has thought: how false the most profound book turns out to be when applied to life.