The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters.

I have a secret passion for mercy. . . but justice is what keeps happening to people.

Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure.

The surprise with which a detective novel concludes should set up tragic vibrations which run backward through the entire structure.

The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world of disasters.

There are certain families whose members should all live in different towns - different states, if possible - and write each other letters once a year.

Hell lies at the bottom of the human heart.

When there's trouble in a family, it tends to show up in the weakest member. And all the other members of the family know that. They make allowances for the one in trouble.

The walls were lined with books, many of them in foreign languages, like insulation against the immediate present.

Freud was one of the greatest influences on me. He made myth into psychiatry, and I've been trying to turn it back into myth again.

An ugly woman with a gun is a terrible thing.

Explore the timeless wonders of life.

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I don’t need help because if I can’t help myself I can’t be helped.

Understanding arises through making

Somewhere along the way one discovers that what one has to tell is not nearly so important as the telling itself.

The common characteristics of people make a community possible, but it is their uncommon qualities that make it better.

There are many wild beasts on land and in the sea, but the beastliest of all is woman.

A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed

Modern science cannot explain why the laws of physics are exactly balanced for animal life to exist.