Things don't go away. They become you.

Regret doesn't budge things; it seems crazy that the force of all that human want can't amend a moment, can't even stir a pebble.

The cracks in old friendships are measured in awkward pauses.

When you know you are dying, self-deceptions fly from your bedside like embers off a bonfire.

I think each family has a funhouse logic all its own, and in that distortion,in that delusion, all behavior can seem both perfectly normal and crazy.

Passion and platonic friendliness, often contrary siblings, frequently wear similar faces to hide the great distance between them.

A tragedy's first act is crowded with supporting players: witnesses crimping their faces, policemen scribbling in pads and making radio calls, EMS guys unfolding equipment, tubes and wheels.

Love wasn't a thing you fell in, but rose to. It was what stopped you from falling.

Sometimes one learns too early, as I did, what the world is capable of.

Diminish the influence of fate

At home in bed that first night I had patchy, mundane dreams about normal things. It would be nobler and less uncomfortable to write that I tossed sleeplessly.

I am not perfect, my roots are not watered with perfection.

Crowns are hourly tumbling.

The style of flirtation specific to classrooms was of service to the students all their lives.

If you meet a woman in a burqa, she can't reply to your smile. It's a denial of identity.

My recent drawings that personal ones aren't fashion-related. I sometimes sit and draw people on the bus, or some fantasy hybrid animal. You know, wherever the hand will lead.

I don't have a brother in real life.

I tell everyone very plainly that I take bribes, but what kind of bribes? Why, greyhound puppies. That's a totally different matter.

Political stuff is all about his [Hunter S. Thompson] reaction to a situation. And my stuff is much more externally driven.

Where would the Rockefellers be today if old John D. had gone on selling short-weight kerosene ... to widows and orphans instead of wisely deciding to mulct the whole country.

I don't believe in karma.