Alcoholism, tobacco, drunk driving, these things will always be with us. There's always going to be a certain percentage of any population that is addicted to certain substances.

Smart people sometimes get stupid, but stupid people never get smart.

If you let people believe that you are weak, sooner or later you’re going to have to kill them.

And the most dangerous place on earth - Is where you’re safe.

I never think about a movie when I'm writing a book, because I think only two things could happen and both of them are bad. You write a lousy novel and a lousy film.

I start work at 5 in the morning and I have a wicked insomnia problem.

I would prefer things to be peaceful and not have conflict.

I don't recognize myself. I don't know who I am anymore." And it's all fun and games until someone loses an I.

Ridley Scott obviously an iconic director, he's made some fantastic films. Obviously a very smart, very tasteful, thoughtful guy. So yeah, I'm in good shape; got Ridley Scott with The Cartel.

I have to remind the people who put down East Coast surfing that Kelly Slater is from Florida.

I think you can use fiction to get inside people's minds.

July 4th is Independence Day in the U.S., and it is celebrated in a truly American way by blowing things up and taking a day off from work.

Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.

Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older.

The Word is the master key for the whole world, inasmuch as through its potency the doors of the hearts of men, which in reality are the doors of heaven, are unlocked.

I think each book has its own way of accommodating my concerns, whether it's about race, America, technology, the city.

Meditation is the pathway to enlightenment, and I would encourage you to follow that pathway as far as you can, into ecstasy.

Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.

I will always pay respect and homage to my early years, because that's what gave me the initial push to go on and do what it is I do. That's where I learned the love and respect for music.

Mitch”, but then reattach it and call it “Mitch-all-together.

Knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.