As lovers of truth, we want to be close to it. Sometimes - evil thought, evil temptation - we want to be close to it by misleading others about its presence.

I'm pretty sure my dog, Pip, gets lonely when there is no one to be with him. But we humans can end up with a gnawing worry about that separation possibly becoming a permanent condition.

Of course, each of us has to write our own book, live our own life.

I worry that we don't currently have a democracy in the United States. Instead we have what [political philosopher] Sheldon Wolin has recently labeled a sort of inverted totalitarianism.

I look back on some of my early reviews of others, and realize to my chagrin that I've been as guilty as anybody else on that front.

It is an admonition to myself when I am reading other people's books. Writing a book is very difficult to do, even a bad one. I try to remember that when reading someone else's work.

None of us is perfect, but the point of our writing is to try to become better, to learn something that we may not have already realized, about ourselves, about the world we inhabit.

We can never leave loneliness behind completely - it is part of what forms us.

At some point just about all of us experience loneliness. In a sense, it is what it means to be a sentient animal, to have an experience of separation from others.

a dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. a man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.

The secret of success is this all-powerful creative energy within, which human beings often sleep over throughout their entire lives.

In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.

The last goose in the column is flying just as high.

You are losing out because Mexican rapists are taking your job.

It's important to keep a balanced diet, but I'm not a fan of deprivation. If I want a cheeseburger, I am not only going to eat that cheeseburger, but I'm going to enjoy that cheeseburger.

Los Angeles has been good to me.

Mindsets are contagious. So choose the people you populate your life with extremely well.

I've never wanted to be anyone other than who I am.

I don't believe in paying full price for clothing.