I do think that short story writing is often a matter of luck.

A lot of us don't want to be quite that serious about world problems. Our life is there to enjoy, not to be an eternal dissident, eternally unhappy with how things are and with the state of mankind.

Action isn’t my forte. I’m an expert on contemplation and mild regret.

I've always thought of absurdism as a French fad I'd like to belong to.

Science fiction is very healthy in its form.

I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.

It is a truism throughout the civilized galaxy that when you go to the police, your troubles really begin.

I'm not too fond of the hard work and the constant battle with self-doubt that goes on when I write, but I figure that's part of the territory.

I sell well now in Russia. I remember one signing in Russia some years ago where the bookstore had two strongmen to hold the crowds back.

Once you find you can't walk as far and as fast as you were able, life becomes more complicated.

I'm not so interested any more in how a great deal of science fiction goes. It goes into things like Star Wars and Star Trek which all go excellent in their own way.

Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy —the joy of being Salvador Dalí— and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí going to accomplish today?

I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometime terrifying experience, and I've enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other.

I always thought writing was the foundation and the basis for journalism in the same way being able to draw is the foundation for art.

The way to feel better about your own situation is to improve someone else’s circumstances.

If you should encounter angry or unkind actions today, take a deep breath, reach deep within and greet the lack of love with love.

All that you see was and is for your sake. The numerous books, uncanny markings, and beautiful thoughts are the ghosts of souls who preceded you.

Back then, the excise tax was designed to be a luxury tax for people who owned telephones.

I never considered myself a fall guy. I know what I did. I know why I did it. I'm not ashamed of it.

The mountain violets break the rocks.