Really, I think among the many mistakes I've made over my life, one of them was caring so much about the short story.

Where exactly do you put your hands on somebody who hurts everywhere?

Behind each piece, animating every attempt, is the echo of a precarious faith, that we are more intimately bound to one another by our kindred doubts than our brave conclusions.

I have lots of fiction in the drawer, but the essays I mostly kick out into the world, ready or not. Fiction incubates differently, I suppose.

Folks double my age and older often run down a conversation tracking a vanishing world that will, with the passing of their memory, vanish entirely.

Pragmatism is good prevention for problems.

A woman has to look good, but a man—a little bit nicer looking than a monkey is enough.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

When all else fails...try smoking a good cigar and have a stiff drink. If that doesn't work...have another.

I've been in love with the same woman for forty-one years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me.

Tantra is the left-handing path, meaning it is the road less taken.

Managers who don't lead are quite discouraging, but leaders who don't manage don't know what's going on. It's a phony separation that people are making between the two.

[O]ne can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things.

Learning to inhibit unwanted contractions of muscles that function without, or in spite of, our will, is the main task in coordinated action.

The practice of being at ease also gives you the strength and stamina to pursue all that you find when you connect inward.