I don't know what I think about certain subjects, even today, until I sit down and try to write about them.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

Those who deal with customers on a regular basis should be circumspect whenever they open their “traps.” It is better not to say anything at all than to say, and later, pay!

When you start thinking from other’s point of view, you will understand him more easily and more completely.

People love books because they're searching for answers to deep, unconscious questions - and books get as close as it's possible to get.

Whatever there is of God and goodness in the universe, it must work itself out and express itself through us. We cannot stand aside and let God do it.

When you can take something that is a reject at the thrift store sitting on the bottom of a pile of junk and make it work, make it look interesting, that's real style to me.

Custom is the principle magistrate of man's life.

There is absolutely no disconnect between common sense gun safety measures and protecting the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

He was not looking forward to breaking the law. He was straight now. He'd matured. Crime no longer excited him. What?' Ronald said. I didn't say anything.' You're breathing heavy.

Bogotá seemed a cruel towering place, like an eagles' nest now inhabited by vultures and their dying prey.

I haven't got the time to sit here arguing with someone whose idea of a coherent foreign policy is what comes up in Google when you type in peace!