You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters thoughts with great understanding and depth.

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.

And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.

People sometimes get in the habit of being loyal to a mistake.

You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel.

Have you ever noticed that when people use the expression 'I have to say', what follows usually needn't be said?

What if all everybody needed in the world was to be sure of one friend? What if you were the one, and you refused to say those simple words?

My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation.

I was the one who did come through that door. You were the one she was waiting for.

He'd watched the world change around him, civilizations rise and fall, and although he could have anything, anyone, he wanted her.

I hate to say it, but there seems to have been some sort of dumbing down as far as movies go.

It began in images and it ended in symbolism.

Applied properly, it [logic] can overcome any lack of wisdom, which one only gains through age and experience.

What we Republicans should stand for is growth in the economy. We ought to make the pie higher.

An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship.

We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.

A poem is the perfect place to celebrate imperfection and exult in the ways you fall short of being the person you want to be.

I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.