We survive until, by sheer stamina, we escape into the dim innocence of our own adulthood and its forgetfulness.

Well, it arose out of two long-term concerns - the first being the possibility of genetic manipulation, nature versus nurture, what constitutes how people get to be how they are.

Let's just say, the American school of suburban angst is not my cup of tea.

Prior to penicillin and medical research, death was an everyday occurrence. It was intimate.

They thought to use and shame me but I win out by nature, because a true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born.

I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.

The truth is always an insult or a joke, lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyone's comfort

Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice.

Every doorway, every intersection has a story.

I get glimpses of the horror of normalcy. Each of these innocents on the street is engulfed by a terror of their own ordinariness. They would do anything to be unique.

Suddenly the staggering love bursts away from me like milk from a smashed glass.

A realization that even if you had discovered the future, it really didn't change how you lived in the present. They were truth, but they weren't all the truth.

You don't teach a person how to write as much as you teach that person how to survive the writing process.

No wars are more bitter than those undertaken in the name of religion.

Islam abhors and absolutely condemns terrorism and any terrorist activity.

People are always surprised when they see me speak live that I have a sense of humor. And I say, Well, you know, there's not much opportunity to laugh when you're reporting the dread news of the day.

Santa Barbara is my hood. I mean, it's not much of a hood, but it is definitely like my hood. I claim Santa Barbara like I claim my family. I'm going to be married and buried there.

I live in a world that's free, colorful, vibrant, takes chances, bold, stands up to power, umm, and that's where I've mad my success.

Wherever a ray of solar light can reach, man can reach.

The notion that I had become a political lightning rod was painful for me to experience.

I don't hear any of the popular stuff unless it's good 'cause I pay no attention to popular culture, at all.