I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what fiction is, and should be.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

The aging Adams delightedly describes being surrounded by books on so many different subjects that interested him as "baits on fishhooks".

If funkytown was a trailerpark, this guy would be a double-wide.

It's really important to me that the public have confidence in their criminal justice system. We don't operate very well if the public doesn't trust us.

She could carry off anything; and some people said that she did.

Let me introduce you to Jesus.

Good is the mora that makes all sure.

The world has entered a new era, evolving from an industrial into a knowledge-based society, and into a society that wants to live in harmony with nature.

If I had to pick one form of acting, it would be live theater. That's where I started; that's where I became a man, I think I'm still finishing up that job.

Poverty is a plague against which humanity must fight without cease.

You are capable of more than you ever thought.