Writers, some of us, may tend to see things before other people do, things that are right there but aren't noticed in the way that a writer might notice.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

I am very familiar with the sound of loss.

Serbia has shown enough patience, but it has also sent a clear and strong message that the law must be respected and that no one is stronger than the state.

Never make predictions, especially about the future.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Boredom sets into boring minds. The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.

Saddam Hussein is about to face trial and George Bush wants to execute him. Not because of the war crimes, but because Saddam is beating him in the polls.

I am going to bring back infrastructure jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs, clean renewable energy jobs, innovation, technology, small business.

Any enterprise of your own is a great enterprise.

Learning takes us through many states of life, but it fails utterly in the hour of danger and temptation. Then faith alone saves.

Knives are like credit cards; don't leave home without 'em and always carry several

When progress is in short supply bring a surplus of determination.