That what appears to be egoism so often isn't.

I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.

It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.

I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?

This might be one way to start talking about differences between the early postmodern writers of the fifties and sixties and their contemporary descendants.

How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

You life matters. You are here for a reason. Your job is to determine why.

Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.

To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors.

If I could live as a tree, as a river, as the moon, as the sun, as a star, as the earth, as a rock, I would. ...Writing permits me to experience life as any number of strange creations.

There's no deep bench there, Mahmoud Abbas is, I think, the best leader of the Palestinians we could field.

My son walked up to Nicole on the beach and I was throwing the ball for the dogs in the ocean... I was like, Max you get the dogs. I’ll talk to the hot blondes.

Being human is being a lot of things at the same time.

All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are.

Respecting differences is very difficult.

Some interviewees you make friends with and some you don't.