Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo.

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Perhaps I am the turtle, able to live simply anywhere, even underwater for short periods, with my home on my back.

About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.

We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

I don't know what happened to me, " he said, shaking his head. "I honestly don't." ... "You grew up, Alex.

The only thing that satisfies the soul is passionate life.

Things can turn out differently, Apollo. That's the nice thing about being human. We only have one life, but we can choose what kind of story it's going to be.

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat.

Everything you encounter is your life.

Each morning brings a hidden blessing; a blessing which is unique to that day, and which cannot be kept or re-used. If we do not use this miracle today, it will be lost.

I regard myself as a man without charm in a country of charmers.

Countries that innovate first get the new jobs, developing an economic edge over the C-free laggards that end up having to later import the technology.

Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward.