To put it quite crudely ... the poor don't really know how the rich live, and the rich don't know how the poor live, and to find out is really enchanting to both of them.

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

Very few of us are what we seem.

Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.

Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.

Fear is incomplete knowledge.

Books are a habit-forming drug.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

The dog is very smart. He feels sorry for me because I receive so much mail; that's why he tries to bite the mailman.

Contrary to what you believe, the earth does not revolve around the desires of your crotch.

Most people think that aging is fatal and scientific data shows that that's not true.

Dreams have always expanded our understanding of reality by challenging our boundaries of the real, of the possible.

Despotism accomplishes great things illegally; liberty doesn't even go to the trouble of accomplishing small things legally.

If men were angels, there would be no need of government.

I want to be a destroyer that can save people.

Don't chase the money... chase the passion. Because that's what is going to keep you happy and motivated and jumping out of that bed Monday morning.

I would say that when I write prose I'm a more socially responsible person. I'm much more a citizen of the world. But the instability of the poetry, the emotional jaggedness, is also me.