I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.

When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.

I felt like poisoning a monk.

Is it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy?

The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.

I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story.

Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.

The fine thing about pacts with the devil is that when you sign them you are well aware of their conditions. Otherwise, why would you be recompensed with hell?

After all, the fundamental question of philosophy (like that of psychoanalysis) is the same as the question of the detective novel: who is guilty?

To be afraid of sorrow is to be afraid of joy also.

As dismayed as Americans are with the influence of the special interests that finance election campaigns, they've been reluctant to embrace the alternative: taxpayer-financed elections.

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self- importance.

The principles always work if you work the principles.

Men think monogamy is something you make dining tables out of.

It's these parallel universes when someone you love is sick. Your world is this completely foreign place involving radiation and tumor markers. Outside, people are buying sweaters.

I've always been very inspired by people who can make their instrument sound very natural.

It's like a dream job to work with your friends.

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

If you're a Christian how do you deal with stress without Jesus? You don't.