I'm getting too elderly to travel the length of the country for a free hangover.

It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.

Life is so extraordinary. Wonderful surprises are just around the most unexpected corners.

Writing is work, but it's also a compulsion, and once you get your characters on paper, you can't abandon them. You have to respond to them.

It was good, and nothing good is truly lost. It stays part of a person, becomes part of their character. So part of you goes everywhere with me. And part of me is yours, forever

Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.

She put out her hand and touched his forearm, as she would have touched some piece of porcelain or sculpture, just for the sheer animal pleasure of feeling its shape and curve beneath her fingertips.

The greatest gift a parent can leave a child is that parent's own independence.

And the wicked thing is, that when we're really upset, we always take it out on the people who are closest and whom we love the most.

Things happen they way they're meant to. There's a pattern and a shape to everything...Nothing happens without a reason...Nothing is impossible...(Page 180).

There's a war on. We don't know how anything's going to end. We just have to grasp each fleeting moment of joy as it whizzes by.

Every step we take toward the top is possible because of all the little steps we took in the past.

I think the universe is pure geometry - basically, a beautiful shape twisting around and dancing over space-time.

I mean, I don't really pay too much attention publicly to what people think.

Remakes are a difficult thing 'cause some people feel very protective of the original.

Winning is important, but survival is even more important. If you don't survive, you don't get to fight the next battle.

You want each city to be different, not just see the same shopping malls and stores wherever you go. That's not healthy.

Adaptations are fun for me because they connect to the idea of filmmaking I had when I was a kid. I would see a movie and think: 'I'm gonna make that movie.'

I place my own hope for the United States in the growth of belief among the unqualified that they are in fact qualified: they can articulate and be responsible and hold power

A leader's job is to help his people.

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.