I always use primary sources, in addition to reading biographies and other materials.

I'm like the trunk of a cactus... I take in a dose of culture and time with friends, then I retreat and go live on it for awhile until I get thirsty again.

It has always been on the written page that the world has come into focus for me.

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. -Loving Frank

What did a person need to survive? Food. Water. Shelter. Warmth in cold weather. And something else... books.

It's wonderful to feel desired. There's a sense of power in it, really.

It's not good to live so much inside oneself. It's a self-imposed exile, really. It makes you different.

In the end, what really matters? Only kindness. Only making somebody a little happier for your presence.

Tell her happiness is just practice, " he said. "If only she acted happy, she would be happy.

As he watches the sun rise, what grieves him is that he failed her. He thinks of the terror she felt. They tell him it was quick, as if that will somehow confine the horror.

She got up from the bed, knelt beside the bed, and put her forehead down on the covers. She was not practiced at prayer anymore. The only word that came to mind was "please".

Follow your heart and you perish.

I have always had a certain song in my head, a certain chemistry of sounds.

You live your comedic life close to the edge, you're gonna cross the line and offend people.

If you continue to improve a product enough, you'll eventually ruin it.

I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.

Those are my enemies: they want to overthrow and to construct nothing themselves. They say: "All that is worthless"--and want to create no value themselves.

Thank you, people who say 'Wow, you're really photogenic,' for not saying what you really mean: 'Wow, you're really ugly in person.'

Nature, or the world, or reality, is what mythology is all about.

Let the music speak for itself.

How can tyrants safely govern home, Unless abroad they purchase great alliance.