I dont walk around chuckling all the time. My outlook is very bleak. Its worse than bleak, its apocalyptic.

Yo! You’re my dope dealer not my thesis adviser. If I wanted your opinion about my dissertation, I’d have asked for it, Motherfucker!

“Et Tu, Babe” was born out of my absolute certainty that a writer’s life was solitary and insular, and I was happy with that. I love reading and writing, it’s my whole life.

Sometimes I think my purpose is as a saboteur when I'm working with other people, derailing what they're trying to do or taking things to a ludicrous extremity.

One of the things that struck me as unique about Hollywood is that I never had bad meetings. There were all enthusiastic, but meaninglessly enthusiastic.

I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.

I was an infinitely hot and dense dot.

The interesting thing about something in the back of your mind is that it can travel pretty far back in your mind.

It's in great joy that we grasp truth.

I can tell from about 20 yards away when someone has a manuscript for me. I can just tell - they have that look.

I think of memory as a game, that is as something one engages in with a very profound kind of "playfulness."

I am concerned about the economy. I was the first one laid off.

Real tenderness can't be confused, It's quiet and can't be heard.

When the guns roar, the arts die.

Being interviewed is one of the most abnormal things that you can do to somebody else. It's two steps removed from the Inquisition.

I haven't met a rich technician

The American people need to know that money is being used effectively because frankly, the nation can't afford careless spending, no matter how well-intentioned.

If I can only keep my good name, I shall have riches enough.

In some remote regions of Islam it is said, a woman caught unveiled by a stranger will raise her skirt to cover her face.

Joe Louis was one of my first heroes.

And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions.