To be unable to read was the ultimate measure of wretchedness.

Those for whom things came easily usually made less of an effort, not more.

We who are residing in a foreign country, away from the immediate scene of action, perhaps can feel more deeply than those at home the evil effects of the present distracted condition of our country.

There was no opiate like a French pillow.

A veteran artist counsels a less experienced one to start a painting using colors in the middle range so that the painter can move to more extreme colors as the work progresses.

On a medical school professor noted for slowly, carefully interviewing the patient: "He taught the love of truth.

Talk helps shape one's thoughts.

In America, applause is won only by physical exertion.

He's half absolv'd Who has confess'd.

When Israel was from bondage led,Led by the Almighty's handFrom out of foreign land,The great sea beheld and fled.

The worst is when men try too hard, because it's not very masculine. Your outfit has to look like 'Oh, I just grabbed that.' Not too calculated. Jeans, a t-shirt: the simpler the better.

Going off the road just leaves me more time to be a writer.

I think of a film as being like a toy train.

You have to be careful who you meet. You can't unmeet them.

Drummers - sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.

If we look long enough and hard enough ... we will begin to see the connections that bind us together, and when we recognize those connections, we will begin to change the world.

Writing is not a mystery. It is a craft like any other, and it can be learned.

Abstraction is everybody's zero but nobody's nought.