A writer's job is to cultivate what can go wrong. You're always looking for that dramatic arc of where things can fail.

Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.

The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.

We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.

Worker bees can leave. Even drones can fly away. The Queen is their slave.

Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?

You know, the condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip it on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night, then you throw it away.

If you love something set it free, but don't be surprised if it comes back with herpes.

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.

The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.

I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.

Do not try to lead men who are unwilling to follow you; if their heart is not in it, you will never find the old spirit or the old courage.

For reasons I do not fully understand, some power is released through setting positive goals that would otherwise remain dormant.

I was on the dance floor but I couldn't hear the band.

I'm not saving anybody's life, I'm not a teacher, I'm not working for UNICEF. I don't think I'm some big deal.

Scotsmen, she had occasion to observe, often did have nice knees. Perhaps that was why they insisted upon kilts.

A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

Like my daddy always said, where there's a way, there's a will.

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.