What is the most important thing in your life?For me, it is my freedom of mind, my freedom to choose my own ways of self-construction or self-destruction.

We make art so that we can feel life. We do science to understand it.

It is wonderful for us to live together in harmony and peace.

More than anything, I like a jacket. You can do anything with a great jacket, the bigger the better. You can have any silhouette underneath. It gives you an attitude. It makes a gown look cool.

...there is no more effective public interest watchdog in Washington, D.C.

My teaching forces me to articulate what I think works in a piece of fiction and how I think it works. All of that gives me energy as a writer.

Falling in love makes smoking pot all day look like the ultimate in restraint.

If you are writing about baloney, don't try and make it Cornish hen, because that's the worst kind of baloney there is. Just make it darn good baloney.

I don't know how many millions I'll make, so I have to give some back to charity. God blesses me with the money, but only if I give some away.

Every communist has a fascist frown, every fascist a communist smile.

There were people who read and there were the others. Whether you were the a reader or a non-reader was soon apparent. There was no greater distinction between people.

Be confident, and just do it. It's all about not questioning what everyone else is thinking, since they're probably looking to others to know what is or isn't cool.