For me, marriage is a grotesque, unforgiving, clunky contrivance. Yet society pushes it as a shimmering ideal.

Experience as much as you can and absorb a lot of reality. Otherwise, your writing will have the force of a Wiffle ball.

If there's reason for hope, it lies in man's occasional binges of cooperation. To save our planet, we'll need that kind of heroic effort, in which all types of people join forces for the common good

I have nothing but respect for the purist who won't work for the pharaoh. But I'm not that strong.

There's a built-up tension in religion, and if you can release it, you'll get a huge and satisfying laugh.

Every joke can't be dazzling. And if you think you spotted an inconsistency, you did!

I was brought up Catholic and, of course, I strayed and repudiated it. That's a painful thing to go through, because you have to look back and realize that you wasted a gigantic chunk of your life.

I have a deep suspicion of social institutions and tradition in general.

There's absolutely no way that something I do on my own is going to be seen in Malaysia.

I resisted parenthood for a long, long time. But having a daughter has given me a sense of hopefulness that I didn't have before.

Clever is the eunuch version of funny.

Nothing exists without its opposite.

Remember me, even if it's only in a corner and secretly. Don't let me go.

She doesn't understand that a writer is a special creature--that I'm different from everyone else. I'm not saying I'm superior to other people, just more sensitive, I guess.

Respect is not ever assigned it's earned.

I'm very much involved with Asian art and its theory and practice, mainly Chinese because that was quite sophisticated. I tend to look at that more than I look the Western.

I almost do not exist now and I know it; God knows what lives in me in place of me.

Do not let the past disturb you, just leave everything in the Sacred Heart and begin again with joy.

I really like Iceland. One of the nicest things about it is that I hardly ever had to reach for my credit card. There's practically nothing there to go shopping for.

Truth is more important, freedom is more complex, and Jesus is more liberating than you think.

No class is safe unless government is so arranged that each class has in its hands the means of protecting itself. That is the idea of republics.