I had grown up as a fan of Studs Terkel. In Chicago he sort of looms large and is mentioned often.

We are unusual and tragic and alive.

I met a lot of great people in Saudi Arabia and I'd like to see them again. And I'd love to spend more time in the desert and in the mountains. I felt really at home there.

Dignity is an affectation, cute but eccentric, like learning French or collecting scarves.

We must do extraordinary things. We have to. It would be absurd not to.

Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.

Better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than in the middle of some ladder you don’t, right?

Here I am Rock You Like a Hurricane.

Again the greatest use of a human was to be useful. Not to consume, not to watch, but to do something for someone else that improved their life, even for a few minutes.

But everyone disappears, no matter who loves them.

Pain comes at me and I take it, chew it for a few minutes, and spit it back out. It's just not my thing anymore.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life.

A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.

I'm not a pop song lyric writer. I can't just focus on one simple meaning or even a double entendre.

Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.

We are not spared death, but the power of death has been defeated. The grip of sin has been loosed. We are invited to share the victory, to follow the path of God back to life.

If the game is designed for you to lose, don't play that game. Play a different one.

Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention.

I like the smell of film. I just like knowing there's film going through the camera.