Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.

When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.

I felt like poisoning a monk.

Is it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy?

The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.

I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story.

I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.

The fine thing about pacts with the devil is that when you sign them you are well aware of their conditions. Otherwise, why would you be recompensed with hell?

After all, the fundamental question of philosophy (like that of psychoanalysis) is the same as the question of the detective novel: who is guilty?

Knowledge in our heads is useless. Its power is unleashed only when it is shared.

When I let go of my own work, my own priorities, I lost the qualities he had been attracted to in the first place. That's how he put it. He loved the woman I was before I was in love with him.

I lived in Paris for six months when I was sixteen. It was a fend-for-yourself environment.

Jace likes to pretend that everyone isn’t talking about him, even when he knows they are.

I was really bummed when I got to the last one of Tony Hillerman Navajo detective books.

Mike Tyson has been accused of being a homosexual. What change do I have, you know? Everyone's in the same boat? Who could possibly care or believe anything after hearing that, really?

I have a respect for family pride. If it be a prejudice, it is a prejudice in its most picturesque shape. But I hold it is connected with some of the noblest feelings in our nature.

There's a lot of guy comics who I think are funny, but I generally am more excited about a special or a show where there are females.

I believe America went wrong in terms of respecting the First Amendment, the state of free speech on American college campuses and on the media and in academia.

All you need is time... and you have it... NOW