A mystery novel localizes the awesome force of the real death outside the book, winds it tightly in a plot.

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.

You either limit the government, or you limit the scope of your life. Why is the government that precious to you in the first place?

I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.

A lot of businesses would rather make an extra dollar than to save a soul. If greed isn't evil, what else would we call it?

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no death the way we understood it. The body dies, but not the soul.

In America, we're trying to find a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and we're not going to be divided along any lines.

Most men I know rely on women to do all the literal dirty work.

Rare is the man who suffers no remorse as he passes from the state of confidant to that of rival.

If you can capture the element of surprise, you're way ahead of the game.

When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.

I can take a newspaper and make it a lethal weapon.