I can see criticizing, complaining, protesting - anything but choosing not to vote. Too many people died for us not to vote.

Criticism shouldn't be a performance that upstages the work it's talking about.

Home is the place where there is somebody who does not wish you any pain.

You can get away with anything as long as it works.

I think at the beginning of one's writing life, negative reviews are what one does to get attention and stake out your territory. It's also often a mistake.

It's not nothing when you're abroad and you don't have a washing machine.

People from Europe and people from Africa encountered one another long before the invention of "Europe" and "Africa" and "white people" and "black people."

The rise of fascism in Europe sent most Americans home. Some black American communists who had emigrated to the Soviet Union perished in Stalin's purges of the late 1930s.

If you're bored, your readers will be bored. If you're faking it, you won't get the kind of readers you want.

I can see Obama trying to be the president who suggests solutions for everyone who has experienced economic hardship.

Europe was a very contentious subject in literature and yet jazz musicians still depended on Europe. Now it's not such a big deal.

Don't worry— you see, to some you are magic.

Republicans have nothing but bad ideas and Democrats have no ideas.

In just about every area of society, there's nothing more important than ethics.

THINGS JESUS NEVER SAID: "You should come with me to church.

Threatned men eat bread, says the Spaniard.

librarianship is one of the few callings in the world for which is it still possible to feel unqualified admiration and respect.

I love Neil Young. His songs were the first songs I learned to play, and I recommend anyone who is starting guitar to learn Neil Young songs first.

Prosperity is like perfume, it often makes the head ache.

My favorite music is '80s music which drives people around me crazy. I really love it.

The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.