Be willing and unafraid to write badly, because often the bad stuff...forms a base on which to build something better.

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years.

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.

Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

We co-create our reality with others in unseen ways.

A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.

It is the destiny of things real to destroy those that are artifice.

I know all I really wanna do is get money and take care of my family.

Look at the Afghans, during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world, yet they were sustained by their faith in God, and God alone.

The way you treat yourself sends a very clear message to others about how they should treat you.

The idea that Hillary Clinton's plan wants to increase Syrian refuges by 550 percent is very concerning to many Americans. They know what has happened. They know there's home-grown terrorism here.

At my age, no one is married, no one has kids, no one has a career.

There's a reason people love watching blooper reels of actors falling about laughing.

One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England.