The best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer.

A couple of years I taught in graduate programs at NYU and Columbia, in the early eighties.

If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with your pals or in any other line of work.

John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.

Like Neanderthals, men prefer to hunt alone or, if in a pack, at the head of it. Women, whether in the field or in a campfire, are collaborative, and when they hunt...they work together.

Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.

Loyalty is weird, it kicks in when you dont expect it and the people who deserve loyalty least seem to get it the most.

For almost anyone who chooses to be a writer, since so very few writers are able to learn a living from their work that is equivalent to the living earned by the average dentist or accountant.

Chimpanzees are endangered. Severely.

Let the truth take care of itself, I decided. It's done all right on its own so far.

Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for.

I fly on the wings of love.

When we will learn to emulate the peacefulness of a tree, love of a flower, the earth will be a garden of love and peace.

Our destinations are Booleans – we reach them or we don’t – but our journeys are spectrums, because there are so many paths we can take to our destination that make getting there that much better.

That's my private ant. You're liable to break its legs.

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it.

I would love to go to Paris. I have to go to Paris. I would love to go there, that's like my dream.

American history is not something dead and over. It is always alive,always growing, always unfinished.

There were times, however, when a man had to make a strategic retreat to win the game.

We are unlimited beings. We have no ceiling.

Rated R movies are few and far between, nowadays. We're all seeing less and less rated R movies, and less and less of them are being made.