We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets.

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time-rich and cash-poor.

I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

I am touched that you are trying to comprehend me. A friend could not be more loving.

And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves.

Dedication to one's work in the world is the only possible sanctifica-tion. Religion in all its forms is dedication to Someone Else's work, not yours.

Working myself into a position of total versatility, so that I can do anything I want to do at the time I want to do it. Whether I do it or not is another question.

Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit.

Don't care for her tongue, do you? How strange. I find it one of my favorite parts. Bones to Gregor

I prefer to subscribe to that whole, “everything happens for a reason” theory, mostly because the alternative is too disturbing to think about.

The worship of Mammon may be vulgar or immoral, but it persists while other religions falter and disappear.

Thomas Jefferson basically secularized Jesus.

I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason For fire and change and torture and the old returnings.