I grew up. I began to think the United States had some problems that really required the help of artistic people to solve. And I gave myself permission to be a writer instead of a civil servant.

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

It's obviously a characteristic of human beings that we like to feel superior to others, but our problem is we are not superior

Who says one instance of writing has anything in common with another instance?

Even with my wife, I find sharing soup is hard.

I have been vain since birth.

Sleep: a poor substitute for caffeine!

I spend most of my time thinking about things like laundry and buying stationery supplies.

I'm not proud to be me, I'm not excited to be me, but I find that I am me, and like most other individuals, I send out little signals; I tell everyone else how everything looks from where I am.

Patriotism is considered to be an emotion a person ought to feel. But why? Why is it nobler to love your own country than to love someone else's?

I was making my living from a joke about my appearance that I didn't understand, and in a way still don't, because when I look in a mirror it doesn't seem funny to me.

There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.

The ribboned gallons that rule us like beliefs rooted in single experiences.

Obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.

So often we search out the impossible and then throw ourselves into trying to do it.

There's a certain line between jokes and music and poetry that's a bit blurred in my mind.

I was always cutting words. I even would write my jokes in my notebook. I still do this, almost like a poem.

It takes 500 small details to add up to one favorable impression.

We have a deep need to affiliate, to be around people, and no creature on earth spends as much of its life depending on others as we do

That's one of the most important things to me is that Detroit and Ann Arbor got my back. If you don't have hometown love, then what's the point?

I fear no secret of a person I trust, and he has no need to fear mine. It is part of being friends.