The jocks that used to stuff me into a locker when I was a punk rocker are my best buddies now.

As a result of manifest destiny, we gutted our resources.

Can we really be whoever we want to be, now that we’ve collected all that we are?

I love being a struggling artist; it makes me feel very alive.

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back.

I usually write in my underwear, with a space heater running full blast, and three dogs sleeping at me feet.

My neediness is not a hole to be filled but something beneath the skin scratching to get out.

I know I've lost my mind. But I'm not concerned, because it's the first thing I've lost in a long time that actually feels good.

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.

I really believe in challenging myself, pushing myself to new places.

You have to find hope. Hope is such a shape shifter. You tend to look in the rearview mirror for hope, but when its gone, you have to look forward. You have to get in the van and keep driving on.

Do you ever go back?"Ruthann nods, "When I need to remember where I came from, or where I'm headed.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

My wife and daughters work. My campaign manager in 2005 was a working mother. I appointed 5 women to my senior staff as Attorney General.

To desire to be an artist is to desire to be a complete man in respect to some one function, to realize yourself utterly. A man is a poor thing who is content not to be an artist.

As regards my means of expression, I try my hardest to achieve the maximum of clarity, power, and plastic aggressiveness; a physical sensation to begin with, followed up by an impact on the psyche.

The days of my youth I remember as nearly always in need of explanation, and not as much fun as advertised in the promotions for board games and breakfast cereal.

Such is professional jealousy; a scientist will never show any kindness for a theory which he did not start himself.

The art, the new, the ability to connect the dots and to make an impact - sooner or later, that can only come from one who creates, not from a teacher and not from a book.

If I stay alert, then I can challenge myself, and by challenging myself, that helps me to stay alive and to hopefully take something away from the experience.